The one word I can use to sum up a sporting event I watched on Saturday: disappointing, and I am not talking about the UNM football team’s lost to Texas Tech. I’m referring to the highly anticipated fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr.
As Lobo football prepares to face powerhouse Texas Tech on Saturday it isn’t the only UNM team gearing up to play a ranked opponent on national television. The No. 16 ranked UNM men’s soccer team faces No. 4 Akron tonight in Akron, Ohio, on national television on the Fox Soccer Channel at 5 p.m.
It hasn’t been an easy two weeks for the UNM football team. Last week the Lobos played No. 13 Arkansas, and this weekend they will play Big 12 powerhouse Texas Tech at University Stadium. The Red Raiders are coming off a 50-10 win over Texas State.
The UNM women’s soccer team is coming off of two straight losses against Oregon State and Washington, but they may be able to salvage its record when the Lobos host Cal.
The UNM men’s soccer team has only allowed two goals this season — but there could have been nine more if it wasn’t for Victor Rodriguez. Rodriguez’s efforts have helped the Lobos earn a 4-0-1 record through the first five games of the season.
It took the Lobos men’s soccer team just over a minute and a half to do what they had failed to accomplish for the entire game prior.
The UNM volleyball team is finally over the tournament hump. The Lobos won their first tournament of the season at the Comcast/Sheraton Lobo Invitational over the weekend, going 3-0 against UC Irvine, Portland State and Montreal. In two previous tournaments the Lobos had failed to finish first, but head coach Jeff Nelson said everything came together this time around.
For the UNM volleyball team, the third time will hopefully be the charm. After losses in the championship matches against Nebraska and Northern Arizona University (NAU) in each of the team’s first two tournaments, the Lobos host the Comcast/Sheraton Lobo Invitational this weekend as they try to win their first tournament of the season.
The Lobo football team is going to have the biggest challenge of its early season this weekend. UNM travels to Little Rock, Ark., on Saturday to take on No. 14 Arkansas Razorbacks. “Our team is excited about having a chance to play a team like Arkansas,” head coach Mike Locksley said. “We expect it to be hot, we expect it to be humid and we expect a great atmosphere for football.”
The UNM men’s soccer team will try to continue its undefeated season this weekend when the team hosts the TLC Plumbing, Heating and Cooling Lobo Invitational. The Lobos are 2-0-1 this year and take on Ivy League powerhouse Columbia University on Friday before facing California State Northridge on Sunday. “We have had a good start to the season,” forward Devon Sandoval said.
The men and women of Lobo cross country started off the 2011 season in good form last Saturday in their first meet of the season. Senior Nicholas Kipruto won the men’s 8,000-meter at the Lobo Invitational, held at UNM’s North Golf Course, for the second year in a row while the women’s team placed six runners in the top 15 in the 5,000-meter race with Ruth Senior placing second. Head coach Joe Franklin said since it’s early in the season half of his runners, including returning All-American Natalie Gray, didn’t compete.
The Lobo football team lost its season opener, which might make it easy to dismiss it as the team with no improvement from last year. Not so fast, though — there were a lot of positives from Saturday’s game. Sophomore Linebacker Dallas Bollema, for example, led the team in tackles with 13.
Yes, there is a hockey team at UNM. The UNM hockey team is a recognized club sport through the University and plays in the Pacific Division of the American Collegiate Hockey Association. The club was relatively unknown until a group of UNM students decided to see if they could make the team bigger. “It’s something that we have started off from basically nothing,” the team president Nick Madrid said.
Before last Saturday’s game against Colorado State, head football coach Mike Locksley said the key to winning would be for the Lobos not to be a detriment to themselves. The message did not reach the players, apparently, because the team had six fumbles, losing three of them in the 14-10 loss.
The smell of grilled hotdogs and burgers in the air, boozed-up football fans and a sea of red stretching from CNM to University Stadium can only mean one thing: it’s the Lobo football home-opener. As expected, the first Lobo football game of the season saw a good turnout, as it had for the last two seasons. There is always a good turnout for the first game, but as the losses pile up, fans just simply look for something less depressing to do.
Head coach Mike Locksley starts off with a home game for the first time in his Lobo career in an attempt to erase the memory of back-to-back 1-11 seasons. The Lobos open the season this Saturday when they take on Mountain West Conference (MWC) rival Colorado State (CSU) at University Stadium.
The UNM cross country team is running to the top. After one of the most successful seasons in school history, which included sweeps at the Mountain West Championships and Mountain Region Championships by the men and women, both Lobo squads will head into the 2011 season ranked in the Top 25. “It’s a big mountain to climb, and it’s a big mountain to fall,” head coach Joe Franklin said.
After seeing how accurate the NCAA College Football 2011 simulation of the UNM football team’s first game occurred last year, it was a no-brainer to see what the video game could throw at us for this upcoming football game against Colorado State.
After seeing how accurate the NCAA College Football 2011 simulation of the UNM football team’s first game occurred last year, it was a no-brainer to see what the video game could throw at us for this upcoming football game against Colorado State.
After missing out on nationals last year, the Lobo men’s rugby team is looking to meet and surpass expectations. Two seasons ago, the team was ranked as high as no.10 in the nation; for the last two seasons, they have been only one game away from making the national tournament after failing in regionals. “We have a lot of improvement that can be made, but that comes with every year,” team captain Robert Wildau said.
Solutions by The State News
