Lobo women seek strong start in 2nd round
UNM has shown its resiliency recently
The last two games in win-or-gohome situations, New Mexico has fallen behind early and fought back for overtime or kicks victories.
Lobos coach Heather Dyche would just as soon get out to a good start on Friday when facing fourth-seeded Texas Christian in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in Wilson, N.C.
“Everybody’s complimenting them on their resilience,” Dyche said with a smile shortly after the opening-round game. “But it would be awesome to not have it tested every game.”
Of course, it has proven to be a winning formula with a 3-2 OT win against San Diego State to determine the Mountain West champ, then moving past Navy in a 1-all tie, with a 4-2 advantage in kicks from the mark as goalie Emily Johnson made two big saves.
“Right now, everything is coming to reality,” she said. “When our win happened in PKs, it was such an adrenaline rush. Now settling down, we realize that we made UNM history and must focus on our next game. We’re still dancing.”
The win was New Mexico’s first in the tournament.
The Lobos (10-1-1) are faced with a tough task if they are to move on. The Horned Frogs (11-1-1) can match New Mexico’s scoring prowess with 23 goals and they have allowed only five. UNM is at 29 goals while allowing six.
“TCU is a very good team,” Dyche
said. “They have quite a few youth national team players on it.”
Three TCU players have scored at least three goals, led by Yazmeen Ryan — one of those national players — with seven goals and three assists in just 11 games. Grace Collins has six goals and two assists and Messiah Bright three goals and an assist.
The offensive ringleaders, however, are Gracie Brian and Payton Crews, who have nine assists between them.
“I think soccer, the great part about it, any team can win anytime,” Dyche said. “I think that’s a little bit different from other sports. You need a little bit of luck and we’ll need some against TCU.”
New Mexico has plenty of players who can generate that luck, led by Gwen Maly, who has scored nine goals with three assists. Alesia Garcia, who had the equalizer against Navy, has seven goals and four assists, while Jadyn Edwards has three goals and two assists. Three Lobos have three assists: Karlee Maes, Paris McKenzie and Madi Hirschman, who also has three goals.
The Lobos, however, will have to get off to a better start than against Navy, when nerves seemed to play a role in the first half.
“I actually don’t think we played our best soccer in the beginning,” Dyche said. “You saw a lot of nerves. Nerves can be paralyzing sometimes if it’s a on a stage. If it’s your first time on a big stage I think sometimes the nerves, you try to do so much, you actually end up not doing well.”
Despite the lofty ranking facing TCU is no different than playing against any other team, Garcia said.
“Each game, you’ve got to play right in front of you,” she said. “No. 4 seed? It will definitely be a fun game. We’ll be ready for them. We’ll take it one game at a time and see how it goes.”
As far the Lobos are concerned, it should be a tough match, Dyche said.
“We’re going to give ’em hell,” she said. “That’s what we do.”
NOTES: The teams actually have a fairly extensive history from their days of sharing conferences, with New Mexico holding a 3-7-3 edge. They have not played since 2012. …The Lobos’ opening-round success was the Mountain West’s first tournament win since 2012.