Things went well for the University of New Mexico women's soccer team at home, but it did not lead to good things on the road as the Lobos lost a pair of matches in California.
New Mexico's record fell to 2-2 on Friday night, despite outshooting the UC Davis Aggies in the match. The damage came in the late stages of the first half as the Aggies broke a scoreless tie when sophomore forward Mahlah Catline drove the ball past UNM goalkeeper Emily Johnson to put UC Davis up 1-0.
The score came in the 42nd minute of the match, which sent the Lobos to the locker room trailing at halftime even though they had three shots on goal, compared to just one by UC Davis.
That trend continued in the second half, as senior Aggie goalkeeper Alexis Smith devoured everything that came her way. The Lobos got some good defense as well — Malia Vanisi came on in the second half to handle duties as goalie and UNM recorded a team save to stay within striking distance.
But UC Davis' Smith continued to protect the net, recording four saves on the night en route to a clean sheet — keeping the Lobos scoreless on the road at the time. New Mexico opened the season with a 2-0 loss to Texas Tech on the road.
Offside calls really seemed to quell some Lobo scoring chances, as New Mexico was whistled for the infraction seven times over the course of the match.
The Lobos had a chance to salvage a split on Sunday when they took on the San Francisco Dons, but found themselves on the wrong side of another one-goal game after allowing a goal just seconds before time expired.
San Francisco dominated New Mexico statistically on the offensive end, peppering the Lobo net with 31 shot attempts on the night, 12 of which were on goal. UNM tallied six shots on goal on 11 shot attempts.
Johnson was between the pipes again and made six first-half saves, but similar to Friday, the opponent was able to sneak in a goal just before halftime.
USF freshman Ashley Humphrey found the back of the net with 43:04 of the 45-minute period having elapsed and the Lobos went into halftime trailing 1-0 for the second time in three days.
But on Sunday, New Mexico was able to find the equalizer off the head of one of its freshman. Alesia Garcia headed in a goal in the 57th minute to tie the score where it remained after 90 minutes of play.
In the first half, UNM's Johnson stepped up big — fending off three shots attempts and making a save in the process and the match moved to a second overtime period.
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Both schools had some good looks at the net and combined for six shots in the final 10-minute period. New Mexico had two scoring chances in the 105th minute, but San Francisco goalkeeper Molly Eby was there to save both attempts.
And San Francisco returned fire, uncorking four shots on goal in just under a four minute stretch as the Lobos tried to withstand the barrage and make it to the final whistle.
New Mexico needed to hang on for just seven more seconds to earn a tie, but relented the game-winning goal at the 109:53 mark and was dealt another road loss, falling to 2-3 on the season, while San Francisco moved to 5-1-0.
The Lobos will return to Albuquerque to begin a four-match home stand that begins with a match agains the UTEP Miners on Friday, Sept. 7 at 7:30 p.m.
Robert Maler is the sports editor for the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers basketball and baseball and contributes content for various other sports as well. He can be contacted at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @Robert_Maler.
