New Mexico’s sound defense provided plenty of problems for Idaho State’s offense en route to a 4-1 victory on Thursday afternoon at the UNM Soccer Complex. Following a troubling 4-0 loss against Colorado on August 30, UNM bounced back to blow out the Bengals, playing mainly on ISU’s side of the field.
Back when Bob Davie was an analyst for ESPN, there was one aspect of the job that he disliked: making predictions. Davie, entering his fourth year as head coach for New Mexico, said he wasn’t fond of acting like he knew what was going to happen five months into the college football season. Davie was paid to give his opinion much in the same way that he gives his opinion as a head coach. Well, the time for making predictions is over.
Jeff Nelson continues his path toward 400. After the team dropped its last three sets against Ball State, New Mexico’s head volleyball coach has a chance to seize to his 400th career win in front of a home crowd. Nelson said getting over the 399 hump would have been nice to do against his alma mater, but he will be happy to climb the plateau whenever the time comes.
The University of New Mexico men’s soccer team will play San Diego and UC Santa Barbara for its first two home matches this weekend at the Grange & Ashwill Memorial Invitational. The Lobos are coming off a 0-1 loss on Saturday to No. 1 UCLA. UNM head coach Jeremy Fishbein said he had mixed feelings about the result because his team did some positive things, but could also have performed better.
At this early stage in the women’s soccer team, head coach Heather Dyche acknowledges that there are some things her team needs to work on. Among them, Dyche said, the Lobos need to clean up their play inside the 18-yard box. Issues inside both UNM’s box defensively and Colorado’s box offensively plagued the Lobos in Sunday’s 4-0 loss at Colorado, she said. “I think they were the better team,” Dyche said at the first coaches’ luncheon of the year on Tuesday at University Stadium. “I’m not trying to say we deserved to win that game, but I think a 4-0 result would suggest it was a 4-0 game, and it wasn’t. We created enough. We had some brilliant opportunities and we didn’t put them away."
Head coach Jeff Nelson’s 400th win will have to wait following New Mexico’s 3-2 loss in the final game of the Ball State Active Ankle Challenge on Saturday. On the national stage, senior middle blocker Simone Henderson had a career night against Nelson’s alma mater during the televised game on ESPN3. Despite her 21 kills on 35 total attempts, the Lobos couldn’t capitalize in the final three sets of the contest.
Goalie: the position that can take you from hero to zero and back again in less than five seconds. It’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it. And sophomore Jason Beaulieu has been doing it 10 years. Beaulieu is the starting goalie for New Mexico. He is in his second season at UNM, but he’s quickly becoming one of the most accomplished goalies in Lobo history. Last season, Beaulieu ended with a 6-4-0 record, which earned him the second most wins ever by a freshman keeper in program history.
A second-half strike handed the Lobos a tough 1-0 loss in their opening match of the regular season against No. 1 UCLA. This is the second year in a row the Lobos have fall to the Bruins.
Many of the former UNM rugby players still have strong ties to the program and serve as coaches and mentors today. On Saturday, some of those former players squared off against the current team in an exhibition game at the annual UNM Lobos RFC alumni match in a 46-31 win for the alumni.
So far, the nonconference schedule for the New Mexico women’s soccer team is proving to be as challenging as advertised. The Lobos gave up four goals -- two in each half -- and failed to score in a shutout loss at Colorado on Sunday. UNM (1-3) opened its season with two losses to No. 1 Florida State and then No. 15 Texas Tech, with road tests at Minnesota and Michigan State still looming.
Redshirt senior forward Madisyn Olguin netted an unassisted goal early in the second half against NMSU to lead the New Mexico women's soccer team to its first victory of the season.
It takes time to instill a physical mentality. It’s something New Mexico’s defensive coordinator has been working on. Kevin Cosgrove, who is in his second year at UNM, said one of his goals was to get the Lobos to play a more physical style of football. So far, the team has shown a more aggressive attitude with Cosgrove at the helm.
The New Mexico men’s soccer team will travel to California this weekend to open up its regular season against one of the toughest competition in the country: UCLA. The Bruins are ranked No. 1 in the National Soccer Coaches Association of America preseason poll.
This is no ordinary season-opening tournament for head coach Jeff Nelson and his New Mexico volleyball squad. UNM will compete in three games in Muncie, Indiana during the Ball State Active Ankle Challenge. Not only will Nelson face off against some of his former coaching staff, but UNM may be able to award its head coach with his 400th career win -- and on a national stage, no less.
Bob Davie has always spoken about how vital walk-ons are to New Mexico’s program. On Tuesday the head coach awarded scholarships to redshirt juniors and former walk-ons John Russo and Michael Walsh, both of whom are Albuquerque natives.
The passing game is starting to look like the real deal for New Mexico. After three years of not being a threat in the air, the Lobos showed off their new aerial attack in their third and final scrimmage of fall camp. Both the quarterbacks and the receivers made several plays throughout the scrimmage, including a couple of nice plays by sophomore wide out Delane Hart-Johnson.
There's no tougher way to start the season than what the New Mexico women’s soccer team experienced at the Lobo Invitational this past weekend. The Lobos faced two top-15 teams, including No. 1 in the nation, at their season-opening classic in Florida State and Texas Tech. The Lobos dropped both games, 3-1 on Friday night to the defending national champion Seminoles, and 1-0 Sunday to the No. 15 Red Raiders.
The New Mexico Soccer Tournament Complex in Bernalillo witnessed plenty of action throughout the Rio Rapids Open on Saturday and Sunday. Youth teams affiliated with the Colorado Rapids from New Mexico, Arizona, Texas and Colorado made the trek to the biggest soccer complex in the Albuquerque area. The preseason tourney showcased players ranging from U-9 through U-14 for both boys and girls. More than 125 teams across four age classes competed in a minimum of three games for a chance to take home some hardware.
For a moment in the second half, the Lobos were within one goal of the best team in the country. Thirty seconds later, No. 1 Florida State took it away. Claire Lynch’s goal on Florida State midway through the second half electrified the crowd and gave New Mexico a spark, but the Seminoles’ strong offense struck back leading to a 3-1 win in the Lobo Invitational.
New Mexico will play like a team with something to prove this year. Despite limping to the finish line with multiple injuries last year, the Lobos finished among the top four teams in the conference. This year: UNM has been picked to finish fifth. “We have three all-conference players, the most players returning, and two kids on the preseason (All-Mountain West) team,” head coach Jeff Nelson said. “We’re going to play with a big chip on our shoulders and make them play like they’ve got something to prove.”
Solutions by The State News
