Four seniors were honored after a season-high crowd of 13,958 witnessed the Lobos take a 64-59 win over San Diego State on Saturday night. Two of the seniors are current players while the other two are not on the roster. Still, each of them brought something special to the program in his own way.
The UNM Athletics Department began last fall with a $1.5 million budget deficit. This fiscal year, administrators have implemented several initiatives to reduce spending, but lower-than-expected revenues from football and basketball ticket sales have been lower than projected have hampered their efforts to get back to the green. Brad Hutchins, deputy athletics director for external operations, said football and men’s basketball are the biggest earners of the department’s 22 different programs.
The Lobos completed a late-inning comeback on Sunday afternoon, riding another offensive explosion to a 16-7 win and a sweep of Air Force on the road to open Mountain West play. New Mexico’s (7-3, 3-0 Mountain West) bats were once again unstoppable, as the team managed 21 hits, led by sophomore 1B Jack Zoellner and junior OF Luis Gonzalez. The two combined for nine hits, six runs and five RBI. Zoellner had a perfect 5-for-5 day at the plate, and Gonzalez went 4-for-5.
The New Mexico beach volleyball team split its results on Saturday as it defeated Colorado Mesa 4-1 and lost to TCU 3-2. The Lobos (2-3) bounced back after falling to two nationally-ranked teams in a previous matchup, and fought off the Mavericks (1-4) in the first match at GCU Beach Volleyball Stadium. In the second game, the Lobos battled hard against the Horned Frogs (3-1), but could not clinch the deciding match.
After a 64-59 win over San Diego State on Saturday night, the Lobos earned themselves a ticket straight to the Thursday quarterfinals for next week’s Mountain West Tournament. “Really proud of their effort, really proud of how hard they played tonight,” said head coach Craig Neal. “This might have been the best performance they had at home. We had great fans tonight (13,958). They brought a lot of energy for us.” By taking down the Aztecs, the Lobos finished as one of the top five teams in the conference, and will therefore not have to play on Wednesday. Their overall record stands at 17-13 while they are 10-8 in the conference. They are playing Fresno State next Thursday at 2:30pm MT.
In the second of this weekend’s 3-game series, New Mexico once again put on a show with their bats, beating Air Force in a game that lasted over four hours and saw 15 extra-base hits and five pitchers give up at least five runs. In the end, the Lobos would outslug the Falcons to win 24-16. Both the Lobos (6-3, 2-0 MW) and Air Force (4-5, 0-2 MW) combined for a whopping 52 hits and 40 runs, though the Lobos got the better end of the stick. Eight Lobos had three hits or more in the game, but none were more impressive than juniors Luis Gonzalez and Carl Stajduhar, who both had four hits apiece.
UNM women’s tennis has not put together the win-loss record it probably wanted at this point in the season, but seems to be eager to change that this weekend in California. New Mexico (1-7) has been close in several of the matches so far and first-year Lobo head coach Stephanie Wooten-Quijada said the team is on the right track in terms of competing. “Today has been a great practice for us,” she said. “Our won-loss record isn’t what he had hoped for, but we are in good spirits...hopefully we’ll get it turned around shortly.”
The spring season has finally arrived for the Lobos, and they will play their first game away from home to Southern Methodist. It will be UNM’s first competitive encounter since the 4-1 away loss to the University of Washington in the second round of the NCAA tournament. The Lobos finished the fall with a record of 12-7-3, and won their first Conference USA Championship in program history back in November, beating Florida International University 3-0 in Huntington, West Virginia.
The regular season finale didn’t go according to plan as the Lobo women’s basketball team lost on the road Friday night against San Diego State. New Mexico (15-14, 10-8 MW) trailed for nearly the entirety of the game, falling to the Aztecs 63-51. The Lobos struggled to find the hoop all night, shooting just 29 percent from the field. But the Aztecs didn't fare much better, connecting on 35 percent of its shots against UNM. With both teams having an off shooting night, the UNM scoring threats of senior center Richelle van der Keijl and junior guard Cherise Beynon were effectively neutralized.
New Mexico beach volleyball assistant coach Daniel Foo said the team did not live up to expectations on Friday, dropping a pair of matches to nationally ranked opponents. “We challenged, but didn’t live up to the hype we should have been able to compete at,” Foo said in a release. New Mexico (1-2) swept Benedictine University at Mesa on Thursday to begin the 2017 regular season, but looked like a different team just a day later. The Lobos first opponent was No. 20 Loyola Marymount (2-0) in its first big test of the season at GCU Beach Volleyball Stadium. Nerves may have been to blame for the failure as New Mexico seemed to have chances in some tight games, but fell by a score of 4-1.
To say it was all Lobo baseball in its first game of a three-game series at Air Force would be an understatement. The Lobos (5-3, 1-0 MW) decimated the Falcons (4-4, 0-1 MW), 19-5, as they put on a firework display offensively. New Mexico had four players that went for three or more hits in the game, out-hitting the Falcons 19 to nine on Friday afternoon. Senior first baseman Jack Zoellner led the way, going 4-of-6 from the plate racking up a home run, three RBI and two runs scored.
The UNM men’s basketball team will host the San Diego State Aztecs on Saturday night to close out the regular season. There will likely be some added pressure to the game with conference tournament seeded still at stake on “senior night”, and head coach Craig Neal said he is not taking it lightly. “It’s senior night, which is always difficult emotionally,” he said. “Then if you win, you are in the fifth (spot), so you play on Thursday. There’s a lot on the line and I think our guys understand that. We’ll prepare accordingly.” The Mountain West Tournament starts next week, and Saturday’s match will determine the No. 5 and No. 6 seeds, an important difference because only the top five teams get a pass straight through to the Thursday quarterfinals.
It was the first match of the season, and New Mexico beach volleyball looked sharp in a 5-0 shutout of Benedictine University at Mesa on Thursday in Arizona. The No. 18 Lobos (1-0) did not find much difficulty in the match, as all five pairs won in straight sets against the fledgling Redhawks (1-6-1). “I think it was a great start to the season,” head coach Jeff Nelson said in a release. “Everyone got out and played and played well at times. We didn’t drop a single game...I think it’s always good to have a match where we can work the jitters out.”
The Lobo baseball team will open Mountain West play on Friday afternoon as they travel to Air Force for a three-game series. The series matchup is the 182nd matchup between the two teams, with the Lobos (4-3) holding a dominant lead of 134-47 against the Falcons (4-3). According to golobos.com, the Lobos have won the last 10 series in Colorado, with the Falcons’ last home series win coming in the 2002 season. The Lobos also won the season series last year, taking two of the three games on the road.
The rematch between Tyron Woodley and Steven Thompson for the Ultimate Fighter Championship welterweight belt is almost here as the two battle this Saturday in Las Vegas, Nevada. Both fighters on the main card for UFC 209 will be fighting to settle last year’s unfinished business. At UFC 205, reigning champ, Tyron “The Chosen One” Woodley held his title against No. 1 ranked Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson with a majority draw decision, although the UFC reported Woodley as having a higher amount of total strikes during the fight, 113 to Thompson’s 60. Saturday’s fight will test both fighter’s ability to adapt and employ the lessons they learned from their first match.
The Lobo women's basketball team will play its final regular season game on Friday, taking on San Diego State on the road. New Mexico (15-13, 10-7 MW) beat San Diego State with ease earlier in the season on Dec. 31, 2016. The Lobos took down the Aztecs, 85-42, in WisePies Arena. as they will take on the likes of San Diego State – a team they beat with ease on the last day of 2016 and in its second Mountain West Conference game of the season, 85-42, at WisePies Arena. Both teams will be looking to finish the season with a bang and gain some much-needed momentum heading into the Mountain West Basketball Tournament.
After winning five matches in a row the Lobos will travel this weekend to Stockton, California to defend their title in the Mountain-Pacific Invitational. The Mountain-Pacific Invitational an annual event that is in its third season and is sponsored by the Rietsch family and hosted by Pacific and co-hosted by UNM.
His whole life, UNM basketball player Connor MacDougall has been reaching for new heights — and not just physically. MacDougall, listed as a 6’9” player on the UNM roster, was a highly recruited power forward from the 2014 class. After playing four years at Corona del Sol High School, where he earned a Division I state title his senior year, the Arizona native got an offer from head coach Craig Neal to play with at UNM. However, MacDougall opted to play with the Sun Devils at Arizona State. He was there for the 2014-2015 season, but after a shoulder surgery, he transferred to South Mountain Community College, where he earned his associate’s degree in psychology while also being named NJCAA Division 2 All-American.
The UNM beach volleyball team will take on Benedictine University at Mesa in its 2017 season opener in Mesa, Arizona on Thursday. The Lobos just established their beach volleyball program two years ago, but have already enjoyed the fruit of success. Thanks to the impressive 17-6 record of the team last season, the latest preseason DiG Magazine Poll placed UNM at No. 18 in the national ranking. “We really have a handle on what we need to do to be successful,” head coach Jeff Nelson said on Media Day. “In the past, we’ve been learning. Now we’re playing better ball...because we have so much experience.”
A member from the UNM men’s basketball program was recognized this week — but this member happens to be female. Chelsey Chamberlain, an Associate Communications Director at UNM, has been named the College Sports Information Directors of America Rising Star award winner for Division I. “I am extremely honored to be receiving this award,” she said. “There are so many people that have been a part of this journey and I can't thank them enough for the opportunities they have given me.”
Solutions by The State News
