UNM Women’s Soccer
This Week: Vs. San Diego State (14-3-1, 9-1 MW), Friday, 7 p.m. MT
Location: San Diego, Calif.
Live streaming: The MW.com
Live stats: statbroadcast.com
Halloween in San Diego and the University of New Mexico women’s soccer team is dressing up as a Mountain West Tournament championship contender.
The Lobos will take part in a great litmus test of where they stand going into next week’s tournament when they take on regular-season champions San Diego State on Friday night.
UNM (8-5-2, 6-2-2 Mountain West), currently sits all alone in third place in the conference standings. The Lobos would clinch a No. 2 seed in next week’s tournament with a win over the Aztecs and a Wyoming loss or tie to Colorado State. Or the Lobos could clinch with a tie and a Cowgirls loss.
“We’ve been playing very, very well – some beautiful soccer,” New Mexico coach Kit Vela said. “Finding chemistry and finding balance has been a season-long process, but we felt like we put it all together last week (in a 1-0 win over Colorado State and a 2-1 win over Wyoming). “We have a lot of confidence and our players are playing with a rhythm on offense.”
Vela pointed to UNM’s 26 shots on goal against the Cowgirls as proof that the offense is coming around. Three shots hit the post, and the Lobos had other chances before Madisyn Olguin and Claire Lynch scored to fuel the UNM rally from a 1-0 halftime deficit.
“From our perspective, from what we try to work on in practice, those goals were phenomenal,” Vela said, “and that comes from being in a rhythm. You can have a lot of opportunities, but when you have a rhythm, that’s how you create goals because putting the ball in the back of the net is part of that rhythm that you practice to get.”
Eleven different Lobos have scored this season, preventing Lobos’ opponents from identifying a couple of top players to stop. But Vela said the team’s defense has improved as well, playing as significant role in UNM’s 7-2-2 record over the last 11 games.
The Aztecs (14-3-1) are 9-1 in the Mountain West and will enter the tourney next week as the top seed. They showed their dominance in a 5-2 victory over then co-leader Wyoming. But Colorado State, which the Lobos beat 1-0 on Friday, took SDSU into overtime on Sunday.
Boise State, which the Lobos beat 1-0 on Oct. 17, turned around two days later to hand San Diego State its first conference loss of the season.
“Obviously, they’re a great opponent,” Vela said of the Aztecs. “We’re expecting a great game, just like we had against Wyoming. We’re expecting a great game. San Diego State has all those great kids from California, and we just try to counter with technically clean soccer.”
Seniors Kelsey Booth (seven goals and seven assists) leads SDSU in scoring, followed by a trio of players with five goals each. Junior Melanie Vaughn is allowing 1.01 goals per game.
While the Aztecs have clinched the No. 1 seed for next week’s MW extravaganza, the Lobos still are playing for seeding in the six-team tournament. UNM potentially could finish anywhere from second to fifth, based on Friday’s results.