by Riley Bauling
Daily Lobo
Some coaches like to ease their teams into a tough schedule.
UNM men's soccer head coach Jeremy Fishbein is not one of those coaches.
The Lobos face No. 19 Notre Dame in an exhibition match today in South Bend, Ind., at 7 p.m.
That's the first in a slew of games against top-25 opponents.
The Lobos will also take on ranked opponents No. 8 Tulsa, No. 11 Southern Methodist, No. 16 Ohio State, No. 20 Pennsylvania State and No. 23 James Madison before the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation conference season starts Oct. 7.
UNM was ranked No. 6 in the CollegeSoccerNews.com Preseason poll.
"Rankings really mean nothing at this point," Fishbein said. "It's going to be a good barometer of where we are early in the season."
With two weeks before the regular season begins on Sept. 2 against Penn State, playing the No. 19-ranked team in the country should show the Lobos if they are worthy of their lofty national ranking.
Even though the game carries some family rivalry undertones - UNM assistant coach Jamie Clark is the son of Notre Dame head coach Bobby Clark - and a showdown of top-20 teams, Fishbein is quick to point out that it's nothing more than an exhibition.
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"The goal of the game is to prepare for the regular season. I would assume that Notre Dame feels the same way," he said. "We're not going to play people purely to win. We are going to play the guys that are going to play when we play regular season games."
Fishbein said the game should also show him if his new players can stack up.
"We'll be getting to see who is going to be on the field when we start playing the regular season games," he said. "We can play guys that might play backup roles and we will get to see how they do against top competition."
UNM finished the 2004 season as the No. 1 ranked team in a Soccer America poll.
The team went on to the NCAA Tournament as the No. 13 seed, where it lost 6-5 to No. 4-seed Virginia in the third round on penalty kicks.
The Lobos ended the 2004 season with a 17-1-2 record. They were the only team in the NCAA to lose only one game.
Notre Dame is coming off a season in which it received a No. 5 seed - its highest in school history - in the NCAA Tournament. The first-round bye the Irish were handed proved inconsequential as it lost in the second round to Ohio State 2-1.
Notre Dame finished the season with a 13-3-3 record.
UNM has one more exhibition game against Fort Lewis on Aug. 29 at the University Track and Field Stadium at 7 p.m.
UNM returns first-team All-American Jeff Rowland and All-Region players Brandon Moss, Lance Watson and Andrew Boyens this season.
The Irish return junior and under-20 U.S. National Team member Greg Dalby and fellow junior Ian Etherington, who were both named to the All-Big East preseason first team.
Fishbein said his team is shaping up how he wanted and expected heading into its first test of the season.
"Our returning guys have come in prepared," he said. "The new guys are going to compliment them well."
