A strong record continues for the University of New Mexico women’s soccer team, who managed to secure another win against San José State during the week’s tournament play but couldn’t overcome Boise State.
In Boise, Idaho, the Mountain West Conference tournament took place with New Mexico (11-7-1, 7-4-1) playing both the Spartans (7-9-4, 5-5-2) and the Boise State Broncos (17-4-0, 9-3-0) in the quarterfinal and semifinal matches.
After going back and forth in the quarterfinal, the Lobos defeated the Spartans 1-0. Both teams went neck and neck during 90 minutes of scoreless play, forcing nine minutes of extra time.
Forward Leilani Baker took her second shot on goal of the game and scored the winning goal for the Lobos. This was her 16th point of the season. Baker and Madi Hirschman took the most shots in the game — 10 of the total shots.
Two days later, New Mexico played number one seed Boise State in the semifinal match. In the first half, the Broncos scored four goals with two more goals in the second.
Three of the goals came via a hat trick from Raimee Sherle of the Broncos. The other three goals were scored by Gabbie Gillespie and Aubree Chatterton. Gillespie got two of her three goals against New Mexico.
The Lobos failed to score against the Broncos. They took five shots on goal out of 14 total, whereas Boise State took 12 shots on goal out of 20 total. Boise State won 6-0, moving on to the championship.
New Mexico needed a win against Boise to compete in the NCAA championship. The loss ended their 2019 season with 11 wins, eight losses and one tie.
Boise State and UNM met in a matchup earlier in the year, with the Broncos coming out on top with a 1-0 score. When UNM met San José earlier in the season, the Spartans won with a 2-0 score.
Both goalies — Malia Vanisi and Emily Johnson — had a combined save percentage of .805 in this week’s tournament. In the whole season, the goalies had a total of 24 goals scored against them.
Baker ended the season with the most goals in the net for New Mexico with seven total.
In conference play, UNM had seven wins, five losses and one tie.
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Their highest scoring game was against San Diego State University, where the Lady Lobos scored six and held SDSU to zero.
This year also ended Head Coach Heather Dyche’s fifth season with the women’s soccer team.
Angelina Pompeo is a sports reporter at the Daily Lobo. She can be contacted at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @PompeoAngelina
