It’s been building for one of the lesser-known club teams, and now it’s the UNM hockey team’s time. The Lobos’ chance to play for a national championship starts today in Colorado Springs, Colo. UNM finished its 2010-11 American Collegiate Hockey Association season 16-5-2 overall, and it opens as the No.
From one of its best performances of the season to its worst. After posting a season-high 53 percent shooting Saturday against Colorado State, the UNM women’s basketball team went ice-cold Tuesday, notching a dismal 22 percent from the field en route to a 50-44 home loss to San Diego State. With the loss, the Lobos fall to 9-14 on the season and 3-8 in Mountain West Conference action.
Don’t remind the UNM softball team how it fared last year; it has already forgotten. Under former head coach Ty Singleton, the Lobos went 11-37 overall and 1-14 in Mountain West Conference action in 2010.
All those season-long inconsistencies were inconsequential Saturday. In its best performance of the season, the UNM women’s basketball team shot 53 percent from the field and 42 percent from the 3-point line on the way to a 86-53 rout over Colorado State at The Pit. Head coach Don Flanagan said he had been waiting for the Lobos to put on a shooting exhibition.
The UNM women’s tennis team earned a split this weekend. The Lobos fell 4-3 in a heartbreaker to NMSU on Friday before rebounding for a 6-1 win against Montana State on Saturday at the Linda Estes Tennis Complex. “Our purpose statement as a team is to improve,” head coach Roy Cañada said.
So far in 2011, illnesses, injuries and even the cold weather can’t slow down the UNM track and field team. The Lobos had another positive performance Friday during the Don Kirby Invitational at the Albuquerque Convention Center.
After enduring another off season, head football coach Mike Locksley continues to fine-tune his coaching staff in the offseason. On Thursday, Locksley promoted quarterbacks coach Dan Reeves to offensive coordinator, one of four personnel shakeups that the third-year head coach hopes will lead to a turnaround in 2011.
Almost a week after National Signing Day, head coach Mike Locksley continues to pluck up recruits.
Snapped. The UNM men’s basketball team’s four-game conference winning streak was halted Saturday in Fort Collins, Colorado. The Lobos, plagued by a poor first-half shooting performance, fell to the Rams 68-62 for the first time in head coach Steve Alford’s UNM career. Alford, who was 7-0 against the Rams, said UNM is just going through a phase where it simply can’t hit shots.
The UNM women’s tennis team doesn’t want to relive its last trip to New Mexico State. For the third time in school history, the Lobos dropped a 6-1 decision to the Aggies last year in Las Cruces. “To say that we are eager for this matchup is an understatement,” head coach Roy Cañada said.
After seeing its coach fired with enthusiasm, Wyoming entered the Pit fired with enthusiasm. Without head coach Heath Schroyer, who was dismissed early in the week, the one-conference-win Cowboys gave the UNM men’s basketball team all it could handle.
Wyoming isn’t the UNM men’s basketball team’s biggest rival. Far from it. But after losing to the Cowboys on a last-second shot in Laramie, Wyo., the Lobos are treating Wyoming’s visit tonight at The Pit as an opportunity for retribution. Senior point guard Dairese Gary said he hasn’t forgotten about the Cowboys’ Francisco Cruz turn-around shot. “They sent us home with a real nasty taste,” he said about the Pokes pulling off a 67-66 stunner.
Thirteen was the number for the UNM men’s and women’s tennis teams. It’s the number of hours the Lobos spent on court in four matches Saturday at the Linda Estes Tennis Complex.
Even though he has a sense of humor about it, Rory Fraser doesn’t like to talk about what happened in his first-ever relay. “I came in dead last,” said Fraser, who was 12 years old at the time.
The New Mexico Classic should’ve been renamed the York Classic on Saturday. Richard York, a sophomore on the UNM track and field team, broke the Lobo heptathlon record at the Albuquerque Convention Center.
Albuquerque fans are in a huge uproar for the 45th edition of the Super Bowl, arguably the biggest game of the year. Two of the oldest and most successful NFL organizations, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers, will tussle for the right to hold the Vince Lombardi Trophy on Sunday. In Albuquerque and around UNM, Packers and Steelers’ fans are gearing up to cheer for their team and hopefully see it walk away victorious.
Imagine the rapturous vindication Ted Thompson will experience when he comes to find that his Lambeau leap of faith will end with him holding the NFL’s Holy Grail. With a win in Super Bowl XLV, the Ted Thompson transformation will have come full circle.
It was far from pretty for the UNM women’s basketball team, but a gorgeous result nonetheless. In a battle of Mountain West Conference cellar dwellers, the Lobos clawed their way back from a nine-point, second-half deficit to defeat Air Force 64-59 on Wednesday at The Pit. “Air Force is a much-improved team,” head coach Don Flanagan said.
UNM head football coach Mike Locksley was smiling like a child on Christmas morning. But Wednesday was the second best day of the year for the 40-year-old, whose birthday just so happens to fall on Christmas day: It was National Signing Day, and Locksley announced the addition of 21 players to this year’s signing class, headlined by five signees from Maryland. Locksley said his coaching staff played a significant role in bringing the recruits to UNM. “I’ve said many times,” Locksley said.
The UNM men’s soccer team looks to score goals. Oddly enough, it’s something the Lobos couldn’t do in 2010 and head coach Jeremy Fishbein wants that to change. Stocking up on firepower, the Lobos on Wednesday signed seven recruits, all straight out of high school. Fishbein said he couldn’t ask for a better recruiting class. “We’ve got two great local kids, two international and three kids from in the region,” he said.
Solutions by The State News
