No. 1 seed Lobo Soccer Set For Mountain West Tournament Semifinals in Boise
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The Lobos are heading to Boise, Idaho, for the Mountain West Tournament. After securing the No. 1 seed, New Mexico secured a “bye” in the quarterfinals on Tuesday, getting some extra time to prepare for the semifinals. The Lobos also earned their second straight regular season title. The Lobos will now face Utah State on Thursday at 11 a.m. in the semifinal round.
On top of the team success, the Lobos saw tons of individual success during the regular season and the MW opponents recognized that. New Mexico earned seven All-Conference placements and three individual awards. Jadyn Edwards, Emily Johnson, Karlee Maes and Molly Myers all earned All-Conference First Team. Alexa Kirton and Zaria Katesigwa earned Second Team Honors. Edwards earned Offensive Player of the Year and Katesigwa earned Newcomer of the Year, while head coach Heather Dyche earned her second consecutive Coach of the Year award.
No. 4 seed Utah State (13-5-3, 5-4-2 MW) advanced to the semifinal round after a 1-0 shutout over Colorado State in the quarterfinals. Ashley Cardozo leads the team with seven goals and 42 shots (22 on goal). She scored the winning goal for the Aggies in the quarterfinal win. Diera Walton has recorded 97 saves and allowed 18 goals in 21 starts as the Aztecs’ goalkeeper. The last time the two teams played during the regular season, the Lobos took a nail biter victory, 2-1, over Utah State, in double overtime.
Since head coach Heather Dyche was hired in January 2015, New Mexico has gone to the Mountain West Tournament all but one year that it has been coordinated. The 2020 season, which was played in the spring of 2021 due to COVID-19, did not have a tournament but did conduct a “final” match between the top team from each division, in which the Lobos took a 3-2 win over San Diego State in overtime. This marks the first time since the 2011 season that New Mexico earned the No. 1 seed in the tournament. That season, the team went on to defeat UNLV, 1-0, in the semifinals and Wyoming, 2-0, in the final round to advance to the NCAA Tournament.
The Lobos’ last time in the Mountain West Tournament, not counting the 2020 COVID season, was during the 2019 season. The tournament was also hosted by Boise State that year and New Mexico earned the No. 4 seed. They defeated No. 5 seed San Jose State, 1-0, in overtime in the quarterfinal round, but then fell to No. 1 seed Boise State, 6-0, in the quarterfinal round.
The Lobos worked all season to get this success and it has paid off as New Mexico won the regular season conference champion title outright and earned the No. 1 seed in the Mountain West tournament. Head coach Heather Dyche is proud of what they have accomplished in the regular season and excited to move on to the postseason.
“To win the regular season and now have this opportunity to go win two games is exactly where we want to be,” Dyche said. “We’ll go give it our all.”