ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— With two exhibitions to prepare, The University of New Mexico soccer team begins the regular season, as well as a three-match homestand, with Texas Tech on Thursday night.
Tickets are available for the 7:30 p.m. season opener but for those unable to attend, the match will be streamed on the Mountain West Network with live stats available.
GETTING STARTED
The Lobos open the season with three consecutive home matches and will play five of their first six matches at home, not counting the two exhibitions at home. The series with the Red Raiders has been evenly matched with Texas Tech holding a 6-5-2 lead in the series but UNM holding a 19-18 advantage in goals scored.
SEASON OPENERS vs. TEXAS TECH
The Lobos have played Texas Tech in season openers five times previously, the last in the 2019 season, winning 1-0. This is the fourth time under head coach Heather Dyche that UNM opens the season against Texas Tech. UNM is 2-3 in season openers against TTU, 1-2 under Coach Dyche.
HOME STATS
The Lobos were 4-2-5 at home last season and outscored opponents 16-9 and outshot opponents 218-134. New Mexico was 4-0-2 when scoring first last season.
Of UNM’s 17 regular season matches, 11 are at home in addition to having two exhibitions at home. Historically, UNM is 139-75-32 (.630) at home, 41-16-8 during Coach Dyche’s tenure.
WHAT’S NEW WITH UNM
UNM has 10 newcomers on the 2023 roster with seven freshmen and three transfers. New Mexico added a goalkeeper in Mariah Scott (UTEP), a player who can play both defender and midfield in Brae Cole (Washington State) and a forward in redshirt junior Margaux Clarke (Washington). The Lobos lost their top two goal scorers in Jadyn Edwards and Leilani Baker who led with eight and seven goals, respectively, and top two leaders in assists in Edwards and Karlee Maes (four).
SOMETHING TO RELY ON
The Lobos return eight players who played in all 19 matches last season, including three who started in all 19 in Sophia Roberts, Myah Isais and Alli Davis. Davis finished with seven shutouts in her first season in net and the defense finished the season with six consecutive shutouts and an ongoing streak of 602 minutes without conceding a goal. Davis’ 0.70 goals against average in 2022 was tied for the fourth best in a single season in program history and her 597:51 shutout streak set the program record. Isais is entering her senior season and coming off of being named to the MW All-Tournament Team and Roberts and Davis are both entering their junior and sophomore seasons, respectively, after making the MW All-Newcomer Team.
Last season, the Lobos allowed 0.83 goals per game, which was the fewest since 2011 (0.68) and the eight shutouts were the most since 2016, when the Lobos also recorded eight.
EXHIBITION NOTES
Veterans and newcomers alike notched minutes in the two exhibitions, with the Lobos wrapping up preseason with a 3-0 win over CSU Pueblo on Monday from scoring from three different players. Natalie DeGagne opened the scoring with an unassisted goal at 16:15, with freshman Alysa Whelchel adding a second goal at 62:02 and freshman Sariah Brady closing the match with a final goal at 86:29 on an assist by another freshman in Mia Leon. Against CSU Pueblo, UNM had a 37-5 edge in shots and 16-2 in shots on goal.