Lobos Open 2024 Season at New Mexico State Sunday
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— The 2024 campaign starts on the road for the Lobo soccer program with an in-state matchup against New Mexico State on Sunday at 1 p.m. MT. Sunday’s match will be streamed on ESPN+ with live stats available (links above).
While UNM gets its season started on Sunday, the Aggies enter the contest 0-0-1 following a season-opening 2-2 draw against USC on Thursday.
GETTING STARTED
UNM opens the 2024 campaign on the road against New Mexico State, taking a four-match win streak into the contest.
Sunday’s match will be the first time the Lobos have opened the season in a true road match since 2020 (at Colorado State) and the first time not at home since 2021 (opened against UC Davis in Las Vegas). In Coach Heather Dyche’s time at UNM, the Lobos are 38-26-13 on the road.
When it comes to season openers, the Lobos are 9-16-6 all-time, 2-6-1 under Coach Dyche. The Lobos won the last time they opened the season on the road, a 4-1 win at Colorado State on March 5, 2020.
This is the first time that UNM has opened the season with New Mexico State. The Lobos have opened up against Texas Tech six times for the most common season-opening opponent.
SEASON OUTLOOK
“We have a lot of new faces going into the season that we are really excited about joining a strong returning core. This team has already shown depth at multiple positions that we felt we were lacking and we are excited to get on the field and see where we are at.”- Head Coach Heather Dyche
SERIES vs. NMSU
The Lobos have won 11 of the 12 meetings, with the first match of the series in 2010. In the series with the Aggies, the Lobos have outscored NMSU 22-4 with eight shutouts.
UNM has won the last four matches against NMSU by a combined score of 8-2 and during Coach Heather Dyche’s time at the helm of the program, UNM has outscored NMSU 11-3 and gone 6-1-0. The last two matches have been 3-1 Lobo wins, with last year’s win in Albuquerque.
In the 2023 win, UNM scored three unanswered goals behind first-time goalscorers in Albuquerque native Mercedes Morris, as well as Presley Devey and Myah Isais with assists from Margaux Clarke, Natalie DeGagne and Paris Dalton, respectively.
- NMSU scored at the 1:59 mark with Morris netting the equalizer at the 4:35 mark and Devey giving the Lobos the lead at 35:55. Isais added to the margin with the final goal of the match at 57:49.
- The Lobos outshot the Aggies 15-8 and 9-6 in shots on goal with Alli Davis making five saves to give the Lobo an even 100 career saves and needing only 25 matches to get there.
ROSTER RUNDOWN
UNM brings in a total of 13 new players with eight freshmen and five transfers. Lobo Soccer rounded out the roster with five transfers, adding two forwards, a midfielder and two defenders. Joining the Lobos ahead of the 2024 season were Hayden Crowley (Washington), Logan Nicholson (New Hampshire), Samantha Corrie (Nebraska), Aléjandra Puerto (Fairmont State) and Morgan Juran (Elon).
Between the five transfers, they’ve played in a combined 7748:43 minutes with 126 matches played and 85 starts. They’ve accounted for 13 goals and nine assists for 35 points.
Nicholson joins the program with the most minutes logged at 3112 and has started in 34 matches and appeared in 49. Second on the minutes amongst the group is Puerto, who played 2832 minutes and leads the group with 13 goals and seven assists for 33 points, which she accumulated in 35 matches and 33 starts throughout two years. In her lone year at Elon, Juran appeared in 1250 minutes with 14 starts and playing in all 17 matches, and Crowley played in 21 matches with four starts and 514 minutes in two seasons at Washington.
In addition, eight freshmen start their collegiate careers at UNM this season in Ashley Moody, Mackie McNulty, Ayla Dils, Gabby Beaudry, Savanah Sanchez, Sherry Diep, Macie Harris and Molly Adams. Of the eight, two come from Colorado (Moody and Beaudry), two from Washington (McNulty and Harris), two from New Mexico (Dils and Sanchez) and two from California (Diep and Adams).
From Albuquerque, Dils comes from a family of Lobos with her mom and dad graduates of UNM. Her father, Alan Dils, played tennis at UNM from 1984-89 and later coached the program from 1996-2014. He is currently the all-time winningest coach in program history and was a five-time MW Coach of the Year. Also from Albuquerque, Sanchez won state championships in 2021, 2022 and 2023 and scored 170 goals and was credited with 67 assists for 407 points throughout her high school career. Her goals led all of New Mexico going back as far as 2002 and is second in New Mexico history in assists
TALENTED TRIO
Natalie DeGagne, Sophia Roberts and Alli Davis were picked for the 2024 Mountain West Women’s Soccer Watch List comprised of three players from each school that is expected to lead their respective programs.
Davis returns for her third season starting in the net, after starting all 36 matches in the last two seasons and made a career-best 75 saves last season. Roberts (team-high four goals) and DeGagne (three goals tied for second) were two of UNM’s top-three goal scorers from a season ago with DeGagne and Roberts tied for the team lead in points in 2023 at nine. DeGagne led the Lobos with 48 shots, 17 shots on goal and finished tied for the team high in assists at three.
SOPHIA RETURNS
Sophia Roberts returns as the top goal scorer from last season with four goals and tied for the team lead in points at nine. Her nine points triples her point total from the 2022 season (three points on one goal and one assist).
The Lobo forward finished the season strong, scoring four goals in October with nine points, including a season-and career-high three in the second to last match against Wyoming. Eleven of Roberts’ 30 shots were on goal and the Lobo averaged 1.76 shots and 0.53 points per match.
In her previous two seasons at UNM, Roberts has started in all but one match (the USD match last season) and has played a total of 2,456:58 minutes.
ALL ABOUT ALLI
Keeper Alli Davis has started 36 matches for the Lobos and has 10 career shutouts with two combined shutouts to date. Three times in her career she’s made eight saves, including twice last season (Texas Tech and Colorado) and against Utah State in 2022. To date, she carries a 79.9% save percentage and has 143 career saves (3.98 per match).
Her first season in the net, Davis broke the UNM record for consecutive shutout minutes with 597.51, as well as the program record with six consecutive shutouts and in ties in a season with eight. Last season, she had nine matches with five or more saves.
She has twice been named MW Defensive Player of the Week (Oct. 24, 2022 and first week of the season in 2023) and was MW Freshman of the Week on Oct. 24, 2022.
NATALIE NOTES
UNM midfielder Natalie DeGagne is a veteran on the roster, entering her fifth season with the Lobos. Coming into the season, the Washington native has played in 59 matches with 34 starts, including all 17 last season and 17 in the 2022 season.
DeGagne’s production has increased in the last three seasons and has scored at least one goal in every season. Last season was DeGagne’s best to date behind three goals and three assists for nine points, an improvement from 2022 where she scored two goals and was credited with one assist for five points. Her minutes have also increased in the last two seasons, playing 1463 in 2022 and 1406 in 2023 after playing a combined 370 minutes in 23 matches her first two seasons.
The midfielder led the Lobos in shots with 48 and in shots on goal at 17 in 2023, which was more shots (28) and shots on goal (13) than the previous three years combined. Twice last season DeGagne finished with three points (vs. Colorado State and Wyoming), which were two of the last three matches of the season. She took a career-high 10 shots against Colorado College, with a career-high four on goal.
SEEING DOUBLE
UNM is one of 21 schools with a set of twins on the roster with Lobo sophomores Allie and Nicole Anderson.
Other schools with twins on the roster are Lamar (two), North Dakota State (two), Wake Forest (two), Bucknell (one), Colorado (one), Davidson (one), Elon (one), Florida Atlantic (one), Grand Canyon (one), Maryland (one), Northwestern State (one), Ohio State (one), South Dakota State (one), Southeastern Louisiana (one), Syracuse (one), Texas A&M-Commerce (one), UC Irvine (one), UC San Diego (one), UMass (one) and Wright State (one).
However, when it comes to sisters, there are over 40 schools with at least one pair of sisters on their roster. Of the teams that the Lobos will play this season, there is a pair of sisters on Abilene Christian, Boise State and New Mexico State.
Nicole, a forward, changed her number from 25 to four this season and appeared in 17 matches with seven starts her freshman season. She scored her first collegiate goal at Nevada (which was the game-winner) and added two assists at UNLV. Nicole tied for the team high in assists with three, was fourth on the team in points with five, and had the second-most shots on goal with 14 (of 25 total shots). She made her first collegiate start at Fresno State on Sept. 24, 2023 and started the final six matches of the 2023 season.
Allie, a defender, appeared in 11 matches and made her first collegiate start in the final match of the 2023 season at San Diego State.
PRESEASON PREDICTIONS
The Lobos were picked fifth in the Mountain West Preseason Women’s Soccer Coaches’ Poll with 76 points.
San Diego State was picked as the conference preseason favorite with eight first-place votes, Utah State (107 points, two first-place votes) and Colorado State (two first-place votes) and Boise State, both with 99 points, were picked ahead of UNM.
Behind the Lobos was a large gap with Nevada (56 points) and Fresno State and UNLV each with 55 points, and from there was further separation with Air Force (37 points), San José State (34 points), Wyoming (32 points) and Colorado College rounding out the preseason picks with 25 points.
Of note, New Mexico plays all but one team ahead of them in the poll on the road this season with the lone exception the final conference match against San Diego State.
HOME GROWN
The Lobos feature 10 players from The Land of Enchantment on the 2024 roster. Kennedy Brown, Dalis Bruce, Ayla Dils, Alix Hailey, Zaria Katesigwa, Mercedes Morris, Sophia Roberts, Taryn Robles, Savanah Sanchez and Fatso Williams all hail from New Mexico, joined by head coach Heather Dyche, who is a 1997 graduate of Eldorado High School and was a four-year all-state defender, a two-time district Player of the Year and the 1996 Defensive Player of the Year. She also played basketball for the Eagles and was a first-team all-state performer two years.
A DECADE OF GREATNESS
Head coach Heather Dyche enters her 10th season at the helm of the Lobos. She is also on the verge on a milestone at UNM, nine wins away from her 100th win.
Entering the season, she is 91-53-28 and 56-27-16 in MW contests with six seasons finishing with 10+ wins and four MW regular season championships and one tournament championship, which includes three consecutive regular season titles (2020, 2021 and 2022). In 2020, the Lobos advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. In addition, she was named the MW Coach of the Year in 2020 and 2021.
Coach is the second-winningest coach in program history behind Kit Vela (2001-14, 122 wins) and would be just the second Lobo coach to reach 100 wins at UNM.
UP NEXT
Following Sunday’s contest, the Lobos begin a five-match homestand starting on Thursday, Aug. 22 against UC Riverside at 7:30 p.m. and conclude the week with Oregon on Sunday, Aug. 25 at 1:30 p.m. Fans can purchase tickets to all 10 home matches this season at golobos.com/tickets or can purchase a Lobo Pride Pass for $50 for admission to all Lobo Olympic sports at golobos.com/pridepass.