by Justin Goodrum
Daily Lobo
Don't let the 2-0 loss to the University of Nevada-Las Vegas on Sunday fool you.
Assistant coach Jorge Vela said the UNM women's soccer team outplayed its competition at the UNM Soccer Complex.
"I personally felt we were the better team. We played better soccer, but they put the two chances away," Vela said.
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The Lobos didn't have their starting goalkeeper on Sunday - and the Runnin' Rebels took full advantage of the opportunity: UNLV scored two goals on 14 shots.
Starting goalkeeper Kristen Winters was serving a one-game suspension for a red card she received in a 1-1 tie to San Diego State University on Friday. Winters committed a handball outside of the box to get the card.
Redshirt backup freshman Shannon Adragna filled in for Winters and turned away five of UNLV's seven shots on goal.
In the first half, the Lobos dictated the majority of the tempo by controlling the ball on the UNLV side of the field.
Bridgette Sanchez and Ashley Lowery both had shots on goal in the first half, but the Lobos' best opportunity came on junior Kristine Sweat's breakaway chance. Sweat put it just wide.
In the 45th minute, UNLV's Tanya Roberts nailed a soaring 15-yard shot to give the Runnin' Rebels a 1-0 lead.
The Lobos almost went into halftime down two goals, but a save by Adragna kept the UNLV lead at one.
The Runnin' Rebels kept testing the backup goalkeeper in the second half.
Adragna picked up two saves early in the second half, but eventually the pressure was too much for the Lobo defense.
UNLV's Nickie Olson capitalized on a corner kick by Angie Inzana and increased its lead to 2-0 in the 58th minute.
The Lobos had seven shots in the second half - one of which included a header by Kellee Hafner - but they weren't able to capitalize on any of them.
Runnin' Rebel goalkeeper Jenna Huff was coming off a broken foot injury, but had six saves in the match.
Vela said the problem was that the changes the Lobos made didn't step up.
"It was disappointing," he said. "We gave everything we had. It was more mental than physical that we went down a little bit. We had to make some changes today, and unfortunately the maturity level wasn't there."
Freshman Krista Peterson said the team chemistry just wasn't there.
"We had kind of a hard time coming together, trying to stay more compact in the game, but we were having some trouble in the back, and we weren't working as a unit," she said.
UNLV moved to 9-4-3 overall and stayed undefeated in the conference at 4-0 to tie Utah for the Mountain West Conference lead.
The loss drops the Lobos to 4-5-4 overall and 1-2-1, putting them at the bottom of the MWC.
Vela said if the Lobos can play like they did at the end of the game, the result could have been what they wanted.
"I liked the intensity of the last 25 minutes," he said. "So we play like that the whole game, it's a different game."
