UNM Soccer Hosts U.S. Women’s Deaf National Team Friday
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— The official season may not start for another few weeks, but the Lobo soccer program gets its first minutes of the 2024 season on Friday night when they take on the U.S. Women’s Deaf National Team.
Friday’s match is free and is set to begin at 7:30 p.m. at the UNM Soccer Complex. For those unable to attend, the match will be streamed on the Mountain West Network.
Comprised of 15 players, the U.S. Women’s Deaf National Team are Deaf and hard-of-hearing athletes with qualifying players having a hearing loss of at least 55 decibels in their “better ear”. Of note, the team is led by Amy Griffin (formerly Allmann), the first head coach of Lobo Soccer from its inaugural season in 1993 to 1995.
Having fielded its first team in 2005 and joining U.S. Soccer’s Extended National Team program in 2022, the Deaf WNT has gone 38-0-1 all-time including an 11-0 win against Australia in its most recent match on June 1. In its 19-year history, the Deaf WNT has won four gold medals at the 2005, 2009, 2013 and 2022 Deaflympics and three DIFA World Deaf Football Championships in 2012, 2016 and 2023.
The team is currently preparing for the 2025 Deaflympics in Tokyo.
For UNM, Friday will be the first time the Lobos will officially take the pitch together and will be the first time in the Lobo uniform for 13 players, including eight freshmen.
In head coach Heather Dyche’s 10th year at New Mexico, the Lobos return Alli Davis in the net, who has started all 36 matches in the last two seasons and made a career-best 75 saves last season. In addition, UNM returns two of its top-three goal scorers from a season ago in Sophia Roberts (team-high four goals) and Natalie DeGagne (three goals tied for second), with DeGagne and Roberts tied for the team lead in points in 2023 at nine. Defensively, Fiona Jenkins enters her sophomore year after starting 14 of the 16 matches she appeared in and played the fifth-most minutes with 1228 and the most by a freshman.
Following Friday’s match, the Lobos have a neutral exhibition against Abilene Christian on Aug. 11 in Portales, N.M. on the campus of ENMU, before opening the season on the road at New Mexico State on Aug. 18. The first home match is at 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 22 against UC Riverside, the start of a five-match homestand.