It was a fairy tale weekend for the UNM men's soccer team, which pulled off three upsets in the conference tournament to win the championship and clinch its first NCAA Tournament bid in school history.
"These players and coaches have performed admirably and never lost faith," head coach Klaus Weber said. "It says a lot about the team and what a great organization it is to go through a losing season and still win the conference championship."
When the Lobos took the field Friday in Fresno, Calif., for the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championship Tournament, UNM (6-11-2, 0-6-1 MPSF) looked like easy prey for first-round opponent and top-seeded Sacramento State University (5-9-4, 4-2-1) because the Lobos hadn't won a conference game all season.
Sacramento was the clear favorite, but UNM stunned the Hornets 3-2 in overtime.
The Lobos then took on the fifth-seeded University of Nevada at Las Vegas (9-8-1, 3-3-1), who had beaten UNM at home 4-1 in the final regular season conference game. UNM took out the Rebels 3-0.
To cap off the unlikely turn of events, the Lobos defeated seventh-seeded Fresno State University (7-7-6, 2-3-2) 1-0 in overtime, ignoring the Bulldogs' home-field advantage in powering past them.
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Senior forward Ty Hibbert scored the winning goal in the 101st minute of play off an assist from junior Stian Eriksen.
It was Hibbert's third goal of the tournament, helping him earn the tournament's Most Valuable Player trophy.
The senior from Phoenix added an assist in the semifinal game against UNLV to give him seven points overall.
Hibbert had plenty of help from his teammates, who provided stymieing defense that was capped by a strong performance from freshman goalkeeper Andrew Weber.
The goalie stopped seven Fresno State shots and recorded his second-straight shutout.
As pleased as he was with individual performances, Klaus Weber said it was a team effort that allowed the Lobos to pull off the weekend string of unlikely upsets.
"It was just a solid performance by the entire team," he said. "They realized that the losses we've had all year have been close and that despite the losses we have been playing some very good games. Instead of parts of the team playing well while others don't, it all came together. This weekend, we finally harmonized and really gelled at the right time."
The Lobos were just a part of the rash of upsets in the tournament, with every game won by the lower seed.
The players rushed the field after Hibbert's overtime goal, celebrating their victory and redemption after a long season.
"They are a very happy group of campers," Weber said. "Yet deep inside, they knew that the win was what they were expected to do. They struggled but never gave up."
Weber credited the addition of new associate head coach Jeremy Fishbein as the key to helping the team stay focused and putting together the successful tournament run.
"We had two people pulling in the same direction, and even though in the beginning it's hard to see the results, it pays off with consistency in the end," Weber said. "We made sure the players never lost the belief in themselves and they finally came together."
The veteran coach has seen many comebacks in years of coaching, but joyfully admitted he had never experienced anything quite like this.
"From a coaching prospective, you have to be realistic and you know that they have the potential but aren't sure if they can turn it around that quickly," he said.
Previous UNM teams have flirted with NCAA Tournament bids by upsetting top teams, but had never won conference tournaments to secure an automatic NCAA bid.
"It's just incredible because we beat teams like UCLA before, but never got the nod, and now the team with a losing record got in - it's just unbelievable," he said.
The Lobos must now wait a week before finding out who their next opponent will be. The NCAA Tournament field will be selected Nov. 19.
The tournament field has been expanded from 32 teams to 48 this year.
Twenty teams will receive automatic bids by winning their conference tournaments, while 28 other teams will receive at-large bids.
"We're just going to keep taking it one game at a time," Weber said.
