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| No. 3-Seed NEW MEXICO LOBOS 11-5-2 (7-2-2 MW) |
No. 6-Seed COLORADO COLLEGE TIGERS 9-6-2 (5-4-2 MW) |
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Tuesday, October 29 | 5 p.m. (MT) |
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Conference Champs!
Fueled by a 5-0-2 month of October, the University of New Mexico women’s soccer team secured a share of the Mountain West Regular Season Championship after going 7-2-2 in league play. It is the Lobos’ third regular season conference title joining the 2010 and 2011 seasons. Despite being a tri-champion, UNM was outside of tiebreaker scenarios with Wyoming and Boise State and as a result are the No. 3-seed in the Mountain West Tournament, which will be hosted by San Jose State. It is the 18th overall MW Tournament appearance for the Lobos in the league’s 20-year history.
Filling Up the All-Mountain West Team
In the recently released All-Mountain West Teams, UNM garnered five recipients with three being named to the first team to match a program-best. Representing the Lobos as 2018 All-Mountain West selections were Jessie Hix, Gwen Maly and Jennifer Muñoz on the first team, while Alesia Garcia and Jessica Nelson were named to the second team. Garcia, a freshman, was also honored on the All-Newcomer Team.
40 Goals for Just the 3rd Time Ever
With their 3-goal output against San Diego State to end the regular season, the UNM women’s soccer team now has 40 goals on the season. It is just the third time in program history that the Lobos have scored 40 or more goals in a season. The previous two times occurred in 1996 (42) and 1997 (41).
Back-to-Back MW Player of the Week
A week after junior goalkeeper Emily Johnson was named as the Mountain West Defensive Player of the Week, UNM went back-to-back on conference weekly honors as senior forward Jennifer Munoz garnered Offensive Player of the Week honors. Munoz’s honor gave the Lobos three honorees this season. Freshman Alesia Garcia netted the first POW award back in August.
Scoring From All Directions
The Lobos have scored 40 goals to this point of the season and now lead the Mountain West, four goals ahead of UNLV. Of those 40 goals scored, 13 different players have found the back of the net with 11 doing so on multiple occasions. Gwen Maly leads the team with seven goals, followed by Alesia Garcia with six goals. Jessie Hix , Cami Floth and Jennifer Munoz are tied for third on the team with four goals. Leilani Baker’s three goals are fourth-best on the team while Lexi Baca, Jadyn Edwards, Madi Hirschman, Makenna Havenor, Jill Olguin and have all scored a pair of goals. Amelia Bierle and Alexa Kirton have added one goal each, respectively.
Who Scores First Matters
Through the 18 games of the season, a significant stat has emerged for the Lobo women’s soccer team and it has to do with who scores first in a game. Currently UNM is 9-1-1 when they score first in a game. Conversely, the Lobos are 2-4-1 when the opponent registers the first score of a game. That was 0-4-0 prior to three weekends ago as the Lobos rallied from early deficits to beat Utah State and draw with Boise State.
Multiple Goals = Lobo Wins
Under Heather Dyche, the Lobos are 31-2-4 when scoring multiple goals in a game. The odd part of that stat is at one time UNM was 21-0-0. Then the oddities occurred. First, UNM lost on a free kick with seven seconds left in overtime in which the clock was stopped to allow the free kick to happen … that was a 4-3 loss. That was followed by a pair of come-from-behind 2-2 ties, one while playing with 10 players, the other without leading scorer Claire Lynch in the Mountain West Tournament. Since then, UNM is 10-2-4 in such games.