Lobos Return to Road at Air Force Thursday
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— The Lobos return to the road for their longest road stint of the season, heading north to Colorado for the first of two matches in The Centennial State against Air Force on Thursday night at 6 p.m. Thursday’s match will be streamed on the Mountain West Network with live stats available.
Both Air Force and New Mexico enter the contest at 5-4-2 on the season, with the Falcons 1-2-1 in conference and the Lobos 1-3-0. Air Force is 2-2-2 at home this season and is coming off a 3-1 loss to UNLV in its last match, while UNM is 0-3-1 on the road this season following two one-goal losses last week on the road at Boise State and No. 12 Utah State.
SERIES vs. AIR FORCE
The Lobos are 21-10-1 all-time against Air Force, including 8-5-0 on the road.
UNM has won the last five matches in the series with three shutouts and by a combined score of 12-2. UNM has scored two goals in each of the last four matches.
Coach Dyche is 7-3-0 all-time and 3-2-0 at Air Force. UNM has outscored Air Force 44-30 and is 14-5 in one-goal matches. When it comes to matches played at Air Force, the goals scored in the series is even at 15.
OCTOBER ROAD
The Lobos have six road contests in the month of October, starting with four to Boise State, Utah State, Air Force and Colorado College. The Lobos return to Albuquerque to host Fresno State and San José State before heading back on the road to Colorado State and Wyoming. UNM closes the conference schedule at home against San Diego State on Oct. 31, meaning the Lobos have six road matches and three home matches in the final month of the MW schedule.
FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING
There have been several firsts for some Lobos this season:
Alysa Whelchel scored her first career goal against Oregon with Presley Devey contributing on the goal for her first career assist.
Kennedy Brown recorded her first point on an assist against San Diego on Sept. 1.
Callie Droitsch, Samantha Corrie and Taryn Robles all made their first career start in the season opener at New Mexico State.
Droitsch earned her first win, a shutout against UC Riverside.
Devey finished with three points in the Oregon match to set a career high, which she later topped against Nevada on Sept. 29 with a career-high three goals for a career-high six points and her first hat trick.
Ashley Moody made her collegiate debut in the match against UTEP on Sept. 8 and made her first collegiate start in the next match at NAU, playing the full 90 minutes. She has since started the last three matches, twice playing 90 minutes.
Devey played a career-high 83 minutes in the match at Utah State. She needed nine matches to surpass her career high in minutes in a season (465:09 last season, 658:05 and counting this season).
Ellie Robinson recorded her first game-winning goal against UTEP on Sept. 8 and finished with a career-best three points in the match.
Alejandra Puerto made her first appearance as a Lobo against UNLV on Sept. 26, playing 27 minutes and has appeared in three matches this season.
Nicole Anderson recorded her first brace against Nevada on Sept. 29, scoring in the 29th minute and in the 55th minute for a career high in goals and points for the sophomore.
After missing the last three seasons due to injury, Fatso Williams made her first appearance as a Lobo in the Sept. 29 match against Nevada, coming in to replace Callie Droitsch in goal for the final 1:26.
SOPHOMORE SHOWCASE
The Lobos feature eight sophomores on the roster and of them, four have started all 11 matches, two have started 10 and one has started seven.
Fiona Jenkins, Nicole Anderson, Callie Droitsch (redshirt) and Kennedy Brown (redshirt) have started all 11 matches as a sophomore with Jenkins playing 931 minutes, Droitsch playing 989 minutes in net and Brown playing 913 minutes. Anderson has played 683 minutes and has four goals on the season, the second most on the team, and has the second-most points on the team with eight. Whelchel has started 10 matches and has three assists and five points, with her assists tied for the most on the team and her points tied for third. Juran has played 890 minutes in her first season with the Lobos with 10 starts and recorded her first career assist against Nevada for her first career points, adding another assist at Boise State to tie for the second-most assists on the team with two.
For Samantha Corrie, Whelchel and Droitsch, their first collegiate starts came this season.
In each match this season, the Lobos have started either six or seven sophomores with six matches with seven sophomores starting. In the NAU match, with freshman Ashley Moody starting, the Lobos had a total of eight underclassmen starting.
FRESHMAN JOINS THE DEFENSE FIRM
Ashley Moody has joined the starting lineup as of late, starting the last five matches and playing a total of 509 minutes, including four matches of 90 minutes. She has played the full 90 in each of the last three matches.
The freshman made her first appearance against UTEP on Sept. 8 playing 62 minutes, followed by her first start at Northern Arizona on Sept. 19, where she played the full 90.
In her five starts, Moody has played 90, 87, 90, 90 and 90 minutes.
NATALIE NOTES
UNM midfielder Natalie DeGagne is a veteran on the roster, with the Washington native in her fifth season with the Lobos. DeGagne has logged 4165:05, the most of any Lobo on the team, and has played in 70 matches with 45 starts, also the most on the team.
She has started the last 37 matches dating back to Colorado College on Oct. 2, 2022.
DeGagne’s production has increased in the last three seasons and has scored at least one goal in every season, which has held true this 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.
DeGagne has contributed at least one point in five of the matches in 2024, opening 2024 with a goal in the season opener at New Mexico State with a goal in the 28th minute and added an assist in three matches (against UC Riverside, Oregon and San Diego). She scored her second goal of the season to tie the match at one at Boise State in the 40th minute.
DeGagne is tied for the team high in assists (three) and is second in shots (22) and is third in points (seven). She has also played the full 90 minutes six times this season (New Mexico State, UC Riverside, UC Santa Barbara, at NAU, at Boise State and at Utah State), 76 minutes against Oregon, 70 minutes against San Diego, 87 against UTEP, 81 against UNLV and 72 against Nevada for 924 (93.3%) on the season. The Lobo is averaging 0.64 points per match, 2.00 shots per match and 0.27 assists per match with four shots in three matches on the season.
UP NEXT: The Lobos face Colorado College on Sunday at 1 p.m. in Colorado Springs.