Saturday night may have been windy and chilly, but the UNM women’s soccer team fought through it and beat UNLV 1-0.
Senior Jennifer Williams got to celebrate her birthday Saturday by scoring the only goal of the night in the 10th minute.
Natalie Jenks was credited with the assist after she passed the ball to Williams, who faked out the goalie for an easy tap-in.
“(Williams) made the perfect turn right across and found that perfect slider ball and turned it in and scored,” Jenks said.
Williams scored the goal, but she said Jenks deserves most of the credit because she helped find the space.
“Natalie worked hard for the ball; she saw the opening before I saw it and she kind of told me to run there,” Williams said.
Williams said she and Jenks weren’t quite in synch with one another earlier on in the season, but that they have worked to correct this problem.
“We’ve been playing a lot together now the first few games this season. We’ve been trying to get that rhythm and it’s just starting to come,” Jenks said.
Williams took six more shots throughout the game, with three of them on goal.
“I’m always frustrated when I take shots that should go in,” she said. “It’s unfortunate when the keeper comes up with a save or I just hit it wide, but you have to shake it off and continue to play,” Williams said.
The win moves UNM to 7-4-3 and 1-0-1 in conference play, while UNLV is 5-8-2 and 1-1-0 in conference play. The shutout is UNLV’s fifth on the road, and UNM’s seventh shutout this season.
Williams said she thought the defense played well because they allowed only two shots on goal.
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“They just continued to keep the pressure on UNLV,” she said.
“They had a great attack, but our defense played solid and stayed compact and did what we were supposed to do.”
The Lobos outshot UNLV by 11 and had the advantage in corner kicks (6-1).
Head coach Kit Vela said the team played hard.
“It would have been nice to get a second goal, but we could have gotten frustrated in the second half,” she said. “We stayed strong and didn’t allow anything to get past us.”
With the win, the Lobos are now 4-0-1 in their past five games.
They will host Wyoming and Air Force this week.
Up Next
Women’s Soccer vs. Wyoming
Friday, 5 p.m
University Stadium
