by Travis Weber
Daily Lobo
The UNM women's soccer team suffered an emotional loss at home Sunday afternoon, falling to Fresno State 4-2.
It was the Lobos' third loss in a row, dropping their season record to 3-4-0.
"We played well in California and lost to two very good teams, in Washington State and Loyola Marymount," head coach Kit Vela said. "Today was a different story though."
The scoring started early with Fresno State's Cortney Sobrero scoring just 1:23 into the game.
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Lobo Katelyn Ley answered with her first goal of the year at the 17-minute mark.
Sobrero scored her second goal for Fresno at the 21-minute mark to make the score 2-1, and that is when things got ugly.
At the 22-minute mark, Lobo Kaela Kelly was called for a penalty. Kelly argued with the official feverishly about the call before being ejected with a red card, leaving UNM one player down for the remainder of the contest.
"It was an embarrassing situation," Vela said. "That is not what Lobo soccer is about. Kaela is a very talented player, but her actions today did not help the team."
When play resumed, the Lobos found themselves trailing by a goal. Fresno State took full control of the advantage, putting in one more at the 43-minute mark to give them a 3-1 lead at the half.
"We really played well considering we were down a player," Vela said. "The second half we were able to keep with them and pressure them a lot."
Both teams scored once in the second half. Sobrero got a goal at the 77-minute mark to cap off her hat trick. Coco D'Angelo added the last score in the 17th minute.
Despite the loss, the Lobos dominated play in the second half, outshooting Fresno State, 10-4. But only three of their shots required Fresno goalie Jeannette Paine to make saves.
"We had a lot of team issues today, and it showed," Vela said. "But I thought we played much better for only having 10 players in the second half. We are still a good team, and we had played every game very well this year up until today."
The win was Fresno State's second straight, moving its record to 2-3-1 under first-year head coach Steve Springthorpe.
The Lobo women travel next to Missoula, Mont. to take on Hawaii and Montana. Then it's off to Flagstaff to face Northern Arizona before returning home to open conference play against Air Force on Sunday, Oct. 10.
