Women's soccer team still in MWC title hunt

Much is at stake for the UNM women's soccer team as it enters its final homestand of the season this weekend.

With a 2-1-1 Mountain West Conference mark, the Lobos are still contenders for the regular season crown, despite their 3-9-2 overall record. UNM is only a few percentage points behind co-leaders Brigham Young University and the Air Force Academy, who both hold 2-1-0 conference records. And with wins against the University of Nevada at Las Vegas and San Diego State University Friday and Sunday the Lobos can surely help their chances at staying near the top.

But what may be working against UNM is that though the team has performed well on the road this year, posting wins against 12th-ranked University of Kentucky, Air Force and BYU, the Lobos have not won at home.

Head coach Kit Vela said she hopes her team will change that trend this weekend.

"Let's hope the kids play as well as they've been playing on the road," Vela said. "UNLV and San Diego State, they don't have the same reputation as Kentucky or BYU that's for sure. But they're very athletic and they're probably as good this year as they've ever been. So it's going to take the same effort that it took to beat BYU and that it took to beat Kentucky to beat these two teams."

Vela hinted that perhaps even stepping on the home field creates a bit of extra pressure for the Lobos.

"They just haven't had a good past on it," Vela said. "I'm just hoping that they know that there's something at stake this weekend and they've got to play the same way they've been playing on the road."

Though the record might not show it, the Lobos have played well at home recently. After blow out losses at the hands of Texas Tech University and the University of Texas at El Paso in September, the Lobos had a one-goal loss to Washington State University and a scoreless tie against the University of Wyoming in their last two home games.

Vela said this points to a higher likelihood of the Lobos coming out on top this weekend.

"We played Washington State, which is an excellent team - they just beat Cal-Berkeley," Vela said. "We took them into overtime, we played well. But I think that was the first step of playing well at home. And the next game we played Wyoming and we didn't play a very good first half and in the second half and overtime, we did everything but score, basically."

Vela also said she is pleased that the team is playing well at this stage of the season.

"We're peaking at the right time," she said. "You certainly don't want to peak in your first game, and do well in the first half and do miserably in conference. So there's two sides to it."

So with the Lobos in the midst of a rebuilding year - Vela is in her first year as head coach and a roster peppered with underclassman - few expected that UNM would be in contention for a conference title.

"We knew this was a complete rebuilding year for a lot of reasons," she said. "We didn't know if it was going to happen early or late, but we knew eventually it was going to happen because the kids were working hard. They've been patient and they've believed in us and trusted us and now they're having success."

The matches are at the UNM Soccer Complex with Friday's at 7 p.m. and Sunday's at 1 p.m.