sports@dailylobo.com
@tellyboyd
The New Mexico women’s soccer team will face off at home against Rice today at 6 p.m. and Michigan State at noon on Sunday.
UNM has a 1-3-0 record after a tough weekend against two highly ranked teams, No. 1 North Carolina and No. 12 Duke. After holding a 1-0 halftime lead, the Lobos lost to the Tar Heels 2-1 then dropped a 1-0 decision to the Blue Devils.
“You see teams get creamed by them (North Carolina and Duke) all the time,” sophomore keeper Cassie Ulrich said. “That just shows the character, integrity and the skill that we do have.”
UNM will compete against Michigan State (3-0-1), which is ranked No. 11 in the nation and Rice (1-1-1).
“I think we’ll do really well. I think we’re on a high from last weekend,” said sophomore midfielder Dylann O’Connor, who has scored the only two goals the Lobos have made this season.
In her freshman year O’Connor played in 16 games. She started in 15 of them, the most any freshman has ever started at UNM. That same year she received Mountain West Scholar-Athlete and Lobo Scholar-Athlete awards.
Although the team has confidence, it does struggle with youth and experience, Ulrich said.
“The first game, you have new players on the field learning how to work with each other,” she said. “After a couple games of doing that we had the heart, we had the communication and we just really put that all on the field and defended together.”
The more the underclassmen play, the more experience they gain, O’Connor said.
“Each game we improve more and more,” she said. “Each game exposes new things we need to improve on.”
Despite youth being a problem, the team seems to hold itself together, and head coach Kit Vela acknowledged the goals are to compete and improve with every game, developing team unity in the process.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Defense kept itself pretty solid so far in the season in surrendering just three goals against two national powerhouses in UNC and Duke.
“I think that a lot of people will see us doing what we want to do, connecting a lot more passes, going to goal a lot more, kind of just finding ourselves more and playing how we want to play,” Ulrich said.
Vela said she has high hopes for the team. Her strategy is to put her team against some of the toughest teams at the beginning of the season in order to give the Lobos a better understanding toward the end of the season.
“Training just doesn’t do it,” Vela said. “You can train really hard every day and it doesn’t give you the experience a game does.” Friday marks the home opener for UNM, and Ulrich expects a positive vibe from the Lobo crowd.
“The atmosphere at home is one of the best we could ask for,” she said. “We just get so fired up and energized going into the game.”
