On an emotional night, in front of a combined crowd of 2,314, the University of New Mexico men’s soccer team opened the season with a 4-2 victory over No. 22 Seattle University. “Lots of emotions today,” head coach Jeremy Fishbein said. “It was a hard one to get going but we’ve got a confident group, I couldn’t be prouder of our guys.”
The University of New Mexico women's soccer team attacked early and often in front of a seemingly ever-growing crowd as it played the first leg of a UNM double-header against the Pacific Tigers on Friday night. New Mexico created a lot of great opportunities in the opening minutes. UNM forward Leilani Baker shook her defender, dribbling the ball and dropping off a pass in the box, but the Lobos were unable to convert. Several minutes later another scoring chance sailed wide right of the post. Baker said the Lobos are an attacking team and knew she wanted to set the bar for play with a lot of intensity to start the match.
The University of New Mexico volleyball team will begin its season on the road, playing three matches over two days in the Idaho Volleyball Classic. New Mexico is no stranger to opening up on the road, having done so in three of the past four seasons. And the Lobos have fared well — winning two of three at the Cyclone Invitational in Iowa last season and doing the same in Indiana to start the 2015 campaign. Another common factor will include the host school for this year’s tournament — Idaho.
After a long offseason fighting to save the program from being cut, the University of New Mexico men’s soccer team is finally ready to take the field for what will be the program’s final season. The Lobos open the season this Friday at home against No. 22 Seattle University at 7 p.m. as part of a double header with the women’s soccer team. The last meeting between Seattle and UNM was last season in Seattle, resulting in a 1-0 win for the Redhawks.
With less than two weeks to go before the beginning of the 2018 football season, head coach Bob Davie said it’s time for some urgency from his team. “Today we didn’t have great energy or great execution,” Davie said following Tuesday’s practice. “It’s not time to panic right now, but it is time for urgency right now because there’s a lot of things we might have a misconception that we think we can do, but I’m not sure right now that I saw anything out here this morning that I think we definitely can do.” Luckily for Davie and his staff, there’s still time to fix that, which is something that he says begins with the players and the team’s leadership to pull themselves out of a nose dive. He added that he was not disappointed, but simply concerned.
By no means is the UNM women’s soccer team hosting a powerhouse say, like, Texas Tech, who Lobos head coach Heather Dyche said “will be a top 25 team this year,” and who they lost to in the team’s season opener 2-0 on the road last Friday. But for a UNM team that Dyche calls young and “lacks experience” playing at such a high level on a consistent basis, she did see some very fixable errors in her team’s philosophy. “I think this weekend (against Pacific) we have to raise our level of grittiness,” she said.
An impressive outing on the mound from starter Jeff Hoffman highlighted a strong all around outing for the Albuquerque Isotopes in the team’s final game as the Mariachis de Nuevo Mexico. Hoffman pitched a career high eight innings, allowing seven hits, one run, walking two and striking out five in a 7-1 win over the Sacramento River Cats, who suited up as the Dorados de Sacramento in front of a crowd of 13,553. “All year the curveball has been kind of a weak spot for me, which is new,” Hoffman said. “That’s always kind of been my pitch my whole life. Tonight I just said this is my best pitch, this is the one I’ve been throwing my whole life, this is what got me here, I’m just going to trust it.” He said that it was a breath of fresh air for him to have good results tonight following an outing where he felt like he had a good game plan and executed well, but didn’t see the same sort of success.
The University of New Mexico hockey club enjoyed plenty of success last season, advancing to the ACHA National Championships for the first time in program history. And just five short months later, the squad is ready to get back to work and pick up where they left off. Head coach Grant Harvey, fresh off a fundraising endeavor, seemed excited about getting a chance to celebrate last season's accomplishment and try to garner support for the upcoming campaign. He said it made it a lot easier to ask for money from private donors when they are able to see the return on their investment. Harvey said was thankful for the support because he doesn't have anything to offer in return. UNM hockey is a club sport as opposed to being a part of the UNM Athletic Department and they rely heavily on fundraising to make playing the game possible.
It wasn’t the end result the UNM women’s soccer team was looking for, but after an hour long lightning delay the start time for the match, Texas Tech wasted no time proving its dominance on its home turf in Lubbock, Texas. The Red Raiders defeated the Lobos, 2-0, in what was the season opener for both teams Prior to the matchup, the Lobos played an exhibition against CSU Pueblo on Aug. 14, in which they ran away with a 7-0 victory over their opposition. But Texas Tech, a team that features a plethora of talent, utilized it to its full potential. The first shot on goal for the Red Raiders came early on with sophomore wing Kirsten Davis firing off an attempt just 2:40 into the match. She got two more looks at the goal within the first eight minutes of the match.
The UNM Lobos football team added another three games to its TV schedule this season, putting a total of 10 of its 12 games on either a “major national or regional networks,” the Mountain West and UNM announced on Tuesday. The latest addition of televised games for the Lobos comes in the form of the televised AT&T SportsNet, with the earliest game on the network coming on Oct. 6 when the team faces UNLV on the road in Las Vegas. The Saturday after, on Oct. 13, the Lobos will also be featured on the very same network, however against Colorado State in Fort Collins.
The University of New Mexico women's soccer team looked like a well-oiled machine in its exhibition opener, pummeling the Colorado State University-Pueblo Thunderwolves in a lopsided shutout win. New Mexico outshot CSU-Pueblo 29-2 in the match, but held just a one-goal lead, after the first of three 30-minute periods, thanks to a late score by junior midfielder Jessie Hix in the waning seconds. The Lobos exploded in the second and third periods though, blasting six shots past the goal keeper en route to a 7-0 exhibition victory.
Students, athletes, coaches and community members gathered outside of Popejoy Hall to rally against the University of New Mexico Board of Regents decision to cut four UNM sports. On July 19, men’s soccer, skiing, beach volleyball and the women’s diving team were on the wrong end of a 6-0 vote by the regents to end the programs following the 2108-19 season. The cuts have appeared to devastate many of the student-athletes involved in the programs and sent a shockwave throughout much of the local community. To protest against the board’s decision and show support for Lobo sports, a rally was conducted on Thursday evening to band the community together and speak out about the cuts. The rally had many speakers, including Greg Williams, local attorney and father of incoming freshman Nick Williams, UNM ski coach Joe Downing, and student-athletes from the women’s diving and beach volleyball teams.
The University of New Mexico men's soccer team won its exhibition opener as it took the pitch in what was likely a welcome break from potential distractions surrounding the program's future. Men's soccer was one of four UNM Athletics programs slated to be cut following the 2018-19 season after the UNM Board of Regents rendered a unanimous vote last month — though another meeting will be held Friday after the Office of New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas claimed the July 19 meeting violated the New Mexico Open Meetings Act. But all of the outside factors seemed to have no effect on the team, as UNM focused in the second half, catching fire over the final 45 minutes to cruise to a 5-2 victory over the West Texas A&M Buffaloes.
Former University of New Mexico football player Brian Urlacher was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio on Saturday. Urlacher was part of eight inductees that comprised the 2018 Hall of Fame class. He was a first-ballot selection after having played his entire NFL career with the Chicago Bears, joining some elite company as one of just 318 total Hall of Fame members. But he also became the fourth Chicago Bear middle linebacker to join the ranks, rewriting the record book along the way as the team’s leading tackler — continuing the team’s impressive tradition of legendary players at that position to wreak havoc against opponents on the field.
Hundreds of people were packed into the ballroom at Thursday's University of New Mexico Board of Regents meetings at the Student Union Building, where the fate of several sports programs hung in the balance. The meeting lasted nearly four hours as dozens of advocates — head coaches, current and former student-athletes, alumni and other members of the community — made statements to the regents urging them to table the issue or reject the motion to eliminate sports. But the parade of testimonials from supporters wasn't enough to sway the minds of the board, which voted unanimously to approve the proposal submitted by NM President Garnett Stokes and Athletic Director Eddie Nuñez to eliminate four sports programs and impose roster management mandates on two others.
The final whistle will be blown for four University of New Mexico sports next July. After an emotional four and a half hour special Board of Regents meeting, the regents voted unanimously to cut men’s soccer, beach volleyball, women’s diving from the swimming and diving team, and men’s and women’s skiing.
The University of New Mexico Athletic Department will cut men's soccer, women's diving, men's and women's skiing and beach volleyball, pending a vote from the Board of Regents.
It may have been difficult for soccer fans to get a sense of how palpable the energy was surrounding the 2018 FIFA World Cup Finals match, but the French people were apparently out in full force watching the game and celebrating as France its second-ever World Cup title by taking down Croatia in the . Fans in the United States were some 5,500 miles away from the championship, which was held in the host country of Russia. And while French fans were much closer to the action, a University of New Mexico student and Daily Lobo sports reporter was in France during the title match and shared his experience during the clinching match. Matthieu Cartron, who has primarily covered UNM men's tennis and women's soccer, was in France visiting family for the summer and said he things unfold in the town of La Flotte on "Île de Ré", an island off the west coast of France.
Paula Congleton and the University of New Mexico softball team have added another pitcher to the 2019 roster, this time the team inked transfer Bailey Klitzke from Wichita State. Klitzke will have two years of eligibility remaining beginning next season. Last year, she recorded a 7-2 record highlighted by wins over Oklahoma State and Texas and a 3.10 ERA in 26 appearances, primarily in relief. She also recorded 40 strikeouts in 49.2 innings pitched.
The University of New Mexico Board of Regents announced it will hold a session in the next couple of weeks, which could yield a decision on certain UNM sports and whether some might be eliminated. Several sports have been rumored to be potential casualties in an effort to reduce spending and gain control of an athletic budget that has operated in a deficit for most of the past decade. Men's soccer is one of the programs that has been mentioned frequently as one that could get the axe, but Lobo men's soccer head coach Jeremy Fishbein has been actively campaigning to give his program — and all UNM sports — a chance to continue. Fishbein said he is a supporter of all UNM sports and was adamant that all programs should be maintained and supported moving forward. He said eliminating a sport — especially one with the scope and impact of something like soccer — would be devastating and something that should even be an option.
Solutions by The State News
