The first leg of New Mexico's trip to the Big Ten ended with a 1-0 loss to Minnesota on Friday night.
The Lobos found themselves in an early hole when Golden Gopher Maddie Gaffney scored an unassisted goal from 25 yards out 11 minutes into the game.
“It was a tale of two halves tonight for us. We let them dictate the game in the first half, and we gave up a pretty soft team goal," UNM head coach Heather Dyche said in a statement. "In the second half, I felt like we dictated play. It went back and forth a bit, but if we had played like that in the first half, the match may have turned out differently.”
Minnesota outshot UNM by a 9-4 margin. Midfielders Dylann O'Connor and Alyssa Coonrod took the Lobos' only two shots on goal. Goalkeeper Cassie Ulrich made two saves.
“We hit the post twice, including once in the final couple of minutes," Dyche said. "The second half is when we made it a game, but we had already dug ourselves a hole. It was too little too late.”
The Lobos drop to 2-9 all time against Big Ten teams with a showdown against Michigan State on Sunday in East Lansing, Mich.
J.R. Oppenheim is the managing editor for the Daily Lobo. Contact him at managingeditor@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @DailyLobo.
