The UNM women’s soccer team played their one and only exhibition game on Sunday evening, besting in-state rival Eastern New Mexico 2-1. The game was in the Lobos' favor for the most part, but ended in dramatic fashion.
The Lobos went up 1-0 in the 21st minute thanks to a goal scored by Brooke Webster. She feathered a shot from 25 yards out that caught the Greyhounds’ goalie looking. The Lobos continued to test ENMU's defense, outshooting them 12-3, but they couldn’t find the back of the net against for a while.
The defenses looked to stand tall for the remainder of the period leaving the score at 1-0 heading into the break.
The second half of the game was dominated by the Lobos, outshooting Eastern New Mexico 16-1 throughout. Finally, in the 85th minute, Greyhound’s Ricci Galdeen scored a breakaway goal to tie the game up at 1 apiece.
The game looked like it was heading into overtime, but Lobos sophomore midfielder Aleksandra Mihailovic had a different outcome in mind. She accepted a pass from Avadney Osbourne and fired a shot off her left foot from about 30 yards out that beat the goalkeeper top cheddar with 18 seconds remaining.
The Greyhounds were unable to get any momentum going in the final seconds and the Lobos came out on top 2-1.
Th game was a tremendous confidence booster for UNM as the team heads into its first game of the regular season. The last time they stepped onto the field in uniform was last year in the Mountain West conference tournament semi-final game. The Lobos battled hard but were lost in heartbreaking fashion via penalty kicks.
After Sunday’s win they were able to erase the bitter taste out of their mouths, and now have their eye set on winning a Mountain West Conference Championship.
Lobos head coach Heather Dyche was able to attend her team’s exhibition match after being in Brazil with the U.S women’s national team helping with scouting.
"I think for us it wasn't about the result as it was trying out some different things," Dyche said in a UNM release. "For us, we wanted to see what combination of players worked well together and see some kids in some spots that they haven't played before. That was what we really wanted out of it. We found some things that we have to work on and quickly. Our first two games are against quality opponents. We better get a little bit better, but that is the reason we have these exhibitions."
UNM is slated to begin the season at Texas Tech on August 19. Then the squad travels to the west coast to take on the University of California Berkeley.
Nate Taglialegami is a sports reporter for the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers women's. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @robert_maler.
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