ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The University of New Mexico women’s soccer team moved to 2-0 in Mountain West play as the Lobos made a goal by Jessie Hix in the 24th minute hold up in a 1-0 victory over Nevada on Sunday at UNM Soccer Complex.
The victory is UNM’s (7-3 overall, 2-0 MW) fourth in a row – its longest winning streak since winning four in a row in 2014. It’s also the Lobos’ first 2-0 start to conference play since 2015 when UNM started Mountain West action 3-0 in coach Heather Dyche’s first season.
The focus for Sunday was in fact that – focus – with the Lobos coming off a 2-1 victory Friday over defending Mountain West champion UNLV at home.
“We are really trying to learn from last year where we let some of (the Sunday) games slip away,” Dyche said. “It doesn’t have to be pretty, but you have to find a win on Sundays. That’s what we talked about at halftime and I thought in the second half we played much smarter. It wasn’t beautiful, flowing soccer, but I thought our energy was much better and we didn’t give up anything.”
UNM dominated possession Sunday and outshot Nevada (1-9, 0-2) 24-7, but had to continue to fight off the scrappy Wolf Pack.
In fact, it appeared Nevada was going to take the lead in the 18th minute when the Lobos were whistled for a foul in the penalty area – setting up a penalty kick for the Wolf Pack. But Nevada’s shot went wide to the left and kept the game scoreless.
Five minutes later, Nevada was preparing for what it thought was going to be one of Jessica Nelson’s long flip throw ins, but the junior made a quick pass to Emily Chavez who sent a high-arching pass right in front of the goal. That’s when Hix, the Mountain West Offensive Player of the Week last week after heading in three goals in two games, headed the ball into the bottom-right corner to give UNM a 1-0 advantage.
“I saw nobody was marking me on the outside so I asked for the ball,” Chavez said. “Our team was already set inside the box. I tried to get it as close to the box as possible and it got popped in, so that was good.”
The Lobos had their opportunities afterward, including a pair of shots that had to be saved by Nevada defenders with the goalkeeper out of position, but couldn’t continue their multiple-goal game streak as it ended at three. It’s also UNM’s ninth time in 10 games this season where the final margin was one goal for the Lobos.
Hix paced UNM with six shots with three on goal while Nelson, Claire Lynch and Amelia Bierle had three shots apiece and Quincy Slora, Alexa Kirton and Aspen Headrick had two shots apiece.
Emily Johnson picked up her fifth shutout of the season and made one save while facing seven shots.
UNM returns to action Friday when it hits the road to take on Boise State (4 p.m.) and follows it up with a road game at Utah State 1 p.m. Sunday.