Women's soccer
The UNM women's soccer team clawed its way back from being two goals down, but couldn't hold on to the tie as it lost 3-2 to the University on Utah on Saturday in Salt Lake City.
The loss came two days after the Lobos had their biggest upset win in the program's history. UNM beat No. 6-ranked Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, on Friday 1-0 to give the Cougars their first loss of the season and grab the Lobos a win in their first Mountain West Conference game.
Forward Kristine Sweat scored the lone goal for the Lobos in the 55th minute against BYU. The last time the Lobos beat a ranked opponent was in 2001 when they beat No. 12-ranked Kentucky.
Against Utah, the Lobos went down 1-0 when the Utes' Adele Letro put a shot past Lobo goalkeeper Kristen Winters in the 37th minute. The goal was Letro's sixth of the season.
UNM kept itself within one for the rest of the first half, but Utah came out in the second half and scored five minutes in when Amanda Feigt took a pass from Letro. Feigt's first shot from 15 yards out was blocked by Winters, but Feigt was able to collect the rebound and put it in for the 2-0 lead.
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The Lobos' comeback started in the 63rd minute when midfielder Anna Neu sent a ball to forward Bridgette Sanchez who put it past Utah goalkeeper Ashley Mason from five yards away. It was Neu's first career assist.
UNM didn't wait much longer to tie the game. Twelve seconds later, Sweat stole the ball from Utah's Amanda Sanchez and dribbled up to the top of Utah's box. Sweat launched a shot from 25 yards out past Mason for her team-leading fifth goal of the season.
Utah got the deciding goal in the 78th minute when Katy Reineke put in a free kick from the left side. The UNM defense cleared the ball, but it went right to the feet of Feigt, who sailed a shot over Winters into the corner of the net.
With the loss, the Lobos dropped to 4-4-3 on the season and 1-1 in the MWC. Utah improved its overall record to 9-5 and 2-0 in the MWC.
Volleyball
It took five games, but it was still a win.
The UNM volleyball team went the distance with Texas Christian University, but came out on top to give the Lobos their highest win total in head coach Kelley McKee's tenure.
With the win, the Lobos improved to 11-5 on the season and 3-3 in the Mountain West Conference.
The first game came down to a 30-29 tie after Lobo Gayle Tripp's ace.
TCU called a timeout to stop the Lobos' momentum, but junior Kelly Therkelsen dropped her sixth kill of the game after the timeout to give the Lobos a win in game one.
UNM went on to win game two 30-23 behind sophomore Samie Weber's two kills and two blocks.
The Lobos had a chance to put the Horned Frogs away in three games, but UNM couldn't finish them when it had game and match point at 29-27.
TCU came back to win the game, 31-29.
The Horned Frogs snatched game four away too, 30-25.
Game five finally went the way the Lobos wanted it to, as they won it 15-12 to take the match. The Lobos were down 12-11 in the game before sparking the comeback win.
Senior Nicole Ryan led the Lobos with 24 kills. She added nine digs, four aces and two blocks as well. Classmate Chelsea Sondrup chipped in with a team-high six blocks. Freshman Sarah Kwasigroch had 55 of the Lobos' 59 assists, while Tripp led the team in digs with 19.
The Lobos grabbed their 10th win of the season on Wednesday with a 3-1 victory over the Air Force Falcons in Johnson Center.
