Lobos Close Homestand with Cal State Fullerton Thursday
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— The Lobos have just one match on the week, at home against Cal State Fullerton on Thursday at 7:30 p.m., to close the opening homestand of the season. Tickets are available but for those unable to attend, the match will be streamed on the Mountain West Network with live stats available.
UNM enters the match 0-0-2 following the opening week, while Cal State Fullerton is 0-1-1 after a 0-0 draw against Boston College and a 4-1 loss to then No. 13 BYU.
GETTING STARTED
The Lobos had two draws in the first week of the season, opening the season with a 1-1 draw against the Red Raiders at home on Thursday and a 0-0 draw against NAU on Sunday.
Alli Davis tied her career high with eight saves (four in each half) against the Red Raiders and added four more saves against the Lumberjacks.
TTU broke the stalemate in the 77th minute with the Lobos finding the equalizer in the 87th minute after Ellie Robinson and the Lobos turned a Red Raider offside into an opportunity. Standing on the Lobo half just inside the center circle, Davis put the ball back in play, kicking it the length of the field towards Paige Satterlee, who tracked it down in the right corner outside of the 18-yard box. Satterlee crossed it into the box with Paris Dalton getting her head on it to deflect it to Robinson, who promptly buried it into the back of the net for the first Lobo goal of the season and the second career goal for the junior. Thursday’s season opener was Robinson’s first career start.
The Lobos started a different lineup in both matches with midfielder Dalis Bruce making her first career start against TTU, and Kennedy Brown, Sariah Brady and Fiona Jenkins making their first starts against NAU. True freshmen Alysa Whelchel, Nicole Anderson and Mia Leon also made appearances and Avianna Gonzalez made her first collegiate appearance in the first week.
SERIES vs. CAL STATE FULLERTON
Thursday will be the first meeting against the Titans since Sept. 16, 2011, with Cal State Fullerton winning 3-2 in overtime in Albuquerque. UNM is 2-3-1 all-time against Cal State Fullerton with three overtime matches that includes one double overtime match. UNM is 1-1-0 at home and its last win against the Titans was Oct. 15, 1995, a 3-0 win at home.
MYAH MINUTES
Senior defender Myah Isais has started in 58 matches in her career and has accumulated 5,505 minutes of playing time over 70 matches. She is a fixture on the field, playing the entire match in 15 of 19 matches last season, the entire 90 minutes in the first two matches of 2023 and in her five years, has played the entire match 43 times and has started every match in the last four years.
IN ALLI WE TRUST
New Mexico redshirt sophomore Alli Davis earned the first Mountain West Defensive Player of the Week on Monday. It’s the second defensive conference award in Davis’ career and the third overall conference honor for the goalkeeper.
The Bend, Oregon native opened the season with 12 saves on the week, including tying a career high with eight saves against Texas Tech. During the season opener, Davis held off the Texas Tech attack that included consecutive saves on consecutive point-blank shots in the 21st minute and another shot and save a minute later to keep the match scoreless. In between the shots and saves, Davis also forced a shot to go high over the crossbar. Davis helped keep the Lobos in the match against TTU as the Red Raiders had a 15-3 advantage in shots and a 9-1 advantage in shots on goal and made four saves in each half of Thursday’s season opener. On Sunday, Davis recorded a clean sheet against Northern Arizona with four more saves (two in each half) for her first clean sheet of the season and the eighth of her career.
THE STREAK CONTINUES
Dating back to last season, the Lobos have an unbeaten streak of 10 matches. The streak started with a 3-1 win over Fresno State on Oct. 6 and the Lobos are 4-0-6 in the span following Sunday’s draw with Northern Arizona. The Lobos have tied in their last five matches dating back to a 0-0 draw against Utah State on Oct. 23, 2022. UNM has scored 12 goals during the streak, outscoring opponents 12-3 with seven shutouts.
The last time the Lobos went 11 matches without a defeat was in 2011 from Sept. 18 to Nov. 6, in which the Lobos went 9-0-2 in that span.
UP NEXT: Following Thursday’s match, the Lobos will head on the road for the first time to face San Diego on Aug. 31 with the next home match on Sept. 9 against Colorado.