Women's Soccer Heads to California on Hot Streak
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The New Mexico Lobos women’s soccer team heads out on the road for its first true road swing of the year, facing the UC Davis Aggies on Friday at 5 p.m. (6 p.m. Mountain Time) and then the San Francisco Dons on Sunday at 1 p.m. (2 p.m. Mountain Time).
The Lobos are looking to stay hot. The team is coming off a brilliant home weekend in which the team pounded out nine goals from seven different players, including goals in each game by Alesia Garcia and Jessie Hix. UNM defeated Pacific 4-2 on Friday before blanking Idaho State 5-0 on Sunday. Those wins pushed UNM to 2-1-0 on the season, its best start since the 2010 season when they started 2-0-1 on the way to a 4-0-3 start.
The Lobos were led by Garcia, a freshman who netted the game-winner in both games. For her efforts, she was named the Mountain West Offensive Player of the Week. Of that award, head coach Heather Dyche felt Alesia’s output was part of her character. “Alesia is a goal scorer. You see her get the ball and that’s what she wants to do.” Garciaa just might be the player to fill in the role of goal scorer to match up with Hix. Last year Hix had eight goals, but Claire Lynch added 10. Lynch graduated, along with seven other starters. “Losing someone like Claire Lynch, you need other players to step up and hopefully she will continue to carry that torch.”
As for the offensive explosion over the weekend, Dyche was pretty happy with the output. “It’s really cool. Some seasons you don’t get nine goals all season. Now we have to figure out a way to keep doing that.”
UC Davis and San Francisco both look to be improved from a year ago. Davis enters, much like New Mexico, on a two-game winning streak, and San Francisco is 3-1-0 this season, losing only to Stanford.
NOTES: Hix’s two goals were both headers, and six of her eight last year were on headers as well. Dyche on Hix’s prowess in the air “She is absolutely elite in the air,” said Dyche. “The only person in my life that I’ve seen as good in the air as Jessie Hix is Abby Wambach. The timing of how she reads it and how she attacks it, it’s special.”