Weather permitting, the Lobos are getting ready to take on Charlotte by storm. After back-to-back wins at home, the UNM men’s soccer team is hitting the road for a match against the Charlotte 49ers in hopes of getting its second Conference USA win of the season. The game on Saturday will be the first of three road matchups in the next two weeks.
New Mexico is still searching after the team’s fourth consecutive loss on Thursday night, this one a sweep at the hands of Colorado State. The Lobos (10-8, 1-4 Mountain West) couldn’t get any momentum on night where the team was encouraging fans to “Jam Johnson,” instead falling 25-19, 25-21, 25-21 against the Rams (10-5, 4-0). CSU’s attack was dominant, posting a .389 hitting percentage, while Lobos were only hitting .074. CSU had good blocks as well — 12 team blocks were just four times more than those of UNM.
New Mexico women’s soccer is set to take on Nevada as conference play continues. Both the Lobos (5-5-2) and the Wolfpack (4-7-0) are 1-3 in conference play, and looking to climb out from the bottom of the Mountain West. In the absence of former Nevada coach Missy Price, the Wolfpack has struggled to find form, having already lost seven times this season.
Junior running back Romell Jordan was lost due to a knee injury before the football season even began; last week he experienced the toughest loss one could imagine. Jordan was seen entering University Stadium toward the end of Thursday’s practice just days after he reportedly found out his mother died. As practice concluded, teammates and coaches embraced the running back, and seemed to be consoling him and offering words of encouragement.
New Mexico volleyball is looking to bounce back in Johnson Center this weekend after suffering three straight losses, and finding itself towards the bottom of the conference standings Head coach Jeff Nelson admitted it was a rough trip for Lobos (10-7, 1-3 Mountain West) last week, as they dropped both road matches. “We did not take anything away from San José State,” Nelson said at Monday’s media luncheon. “And on Saturday we just really struggled with Fresno State.”
Last season New Mexico stunned Boise State by dealing the Broncos a rare home loss on its distinctive blue turf; now Boise State will be looking to exact revenge when the teams square off Friday at University Stadium. The Lobos were 30.5 point underdogs, but never trailed in last year’s upset, a 31-24 triumph that arguably became head coach Bob Davie’s signature win during his tenure at New Mexico.
Three goals by three different players gave the Lobos the result they wanted. The UNM men’s soccer team shut out Loyola Marymount University in a 3-0 victory on Tuesday night. With the win, New Mexico improves to 7-3 overall. The squad also remains undefeated at home, where it has outscored opponents 13-1 en route to a sterling 6-0 record.
After a 4-1 Conference USA win over Florida International University on Friday, the No. 23 New Mexico men’s soccer team is taking a break from conference play Tuesday to host the Loyola Marymount University Lions. But conference match or not, head coach Jeremy Fishbein said the Lobos won’t be taking this one lightly.
After opening up conference play with a win, New Mexico has stumbled its past three matches and finds itself towards the bottom of the standings early in Mountain West play. Fresno State (10-5, 1-3 MW) needed just three sets to send UNM home and back to the drawing board after a 3-0 sweep on Saturday afternoon. “I just think it’s gut-check time,” head coach Jeff Nelson said in a release. “We were 10-4 and now we’re 10-7.”
The New Mexico women’s tennis team will send pair of Lobos to the ITA All-American Championships. The team is still not at full strength — Andrea Leblanc has successfully rehabbed from an injury that kept her out of action last week, but Emily Olivier will likely miss this weekend due to illness.
Although the season opener is still a month away, New Mexico head coach Craig Neal is already evaluating what the Lobos can do to have a successful season. During a press conference before UNM’s first official practice on Friday, Neal said the staff and players are working hard to get back to the same level they were at not too long ago. To Neal, and much of the Lobo fanbase, the past two seasons didn’t meet the program’s expectations.
New Mexico blew an early 21 point first-half lead in its last game against Rutgers. On Saturday, another 21 point lead was evaporating quickly, and Lobo fans had to buckle up for a bumpy ride. UNM’s defense tightened up in the second half as it has all season, allowing only 28 yards and zero points in the quarter. An interception returned for a touchdown by Austin Ocasio put the Lobos up 41-20, and the game seemed to be well in hand.
It was by no means perfect, but the UNM football team held on to win its first Mountain West game of the season 48-41 against the San José State Spartans. With the win, New Mexico improved to 2-2 (1-0 MW) and 2-0 at home.
Head coach Heather Dyche said she was looking for leadership from UNM’s offense. She got more than one leader in Friday afternoon’s 3-1 victory over San Jose State. Dyche has said she thought her squad was too timid in the final third of the soccer field and said someone had to take control in the Lobo attack.
The defending champions No. 2-ranked New Mexico women’s cross country team placed fourth among 23 teams, while the youthful men’s squad placed 23rd of 25 on Friday afternoon in Notre Dame, Indiana. Although the women’s team couldn’t accomplish a three-peat — having won the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invite in 2014 and 2015 — it remained competitive with solid top-five performances from Alice Wright (second place) and Calli Thackery (fifth), with times of 16:16.0 and 16:30.9, respectively, in the 5-kilometer race.
The New Mexico men’s tennis team hits the courts Friday to open the fall season, but its nationally-ranked doubles team will first head to Tulsa, Oklahoma to compete in the ITA All-American Championships. New head coach Ben Dunbar said he will accompany Hayden Sabatka and Bart Van Leijsen to compete in the tournament. Sabataka and Van Leijsen are the No. 15 doubles pairing in the nation, according to the ITA preseason rankings.
The UNM men’s soccer team got its first Conference USA win of the season on Friday night in a 4-1 victory over Florida International University. Head coach Jeremy Fishbein said the 1-0 loss to Kentucky on Sunday helped motivate his team to play their best against FIU (3-5-1, 1-2 C-USA). “It was a great performance tonight,” Fishbein said.
With autumn in the air, there is one big thing that comes into the minds of New Mexico sports fans: college basketball. The UNM men’s basketball team stepped back on the court on Friday afternoon for its first official practice. The Lobos finished the 2015-2016 season with a 17-15 overall record and went 10-8 in the Mountain West Conference, good for a fourth place finish.
After a quick start, the Lobos couldn’t finish the job in a 3-2 loss to San Jose State in San Jose, California on Thursday night. It appeared things were going smoothly for New Mexico (10-6, 1-2 MW), who started the first Mountain West road match of the season with 25-21 and 26-24 wins in the first two sets. However, after intermission, the Lobos ran out of steam, and UNM dropped the next three sets.
After dropping its first two Mountain West openers at home, New Mexico Women’s Soccer is in dire need of a leader. Head coach Heather Dyche said she hopes to see someone take charge in the attacking third of the field, an area the Lobos desperately need work in.
Solutions by The State News
