The UNM women's soccer team fell to Brigham Young University 3-2 on Thursday night.
The Cougars scored with less than five minutes left in the game lifting them to a victory and a 3-0 start in the Mountain West Conference. Freshman midfielder Brooke Bowman took a pass from Jeni Viernes and beat Lobo goalkeeper Kristen Winters for the game-winning goal.
Both teams came into the game with 2-0 records in the conference. UNM, coming off two road victories last weekend, got on the scoreboard first. Junior forward Marte Dolva fed a streaking Erchen Theys who put a header into the back of the net giving the Lobos an early 1-0 lead.
"Marte (Dolva) got the ball on the right side and I was coming on the left side," Theys said. "I cut between two defenders and she passed the ball in the air and I had to dive for it to touch it and it went in."
The rest of the first half would belong to BYU. The Cougars tied the score on a penalty kick from sophomore Aleisha Cramer Rose. The penalty kick was awarded to BYU after a UNM player was called for an infraction inside the penalty box.
The Cougars took the lead later in the first half when Cramer Rose scored again, this time from 30 yards out on a free kick that sailed over the head of Winters giving BYU a 2-1 lead.
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The Lobos remained down 2-1 throughout most of the second half. In the 82nd minute, Rachel Addison took a shot from inside the middle of the penalty box. The shot was deflected and bounced right back to her. Addison would not be denied on the rebound as she blasted the ball past the out-stretched BYU goalkeeper Ashley Smith tying the score at 2-2.
"It was kind of chaotic in the box," Addison said. "I shot it off Coco (D'Angelo) and it bounced back at me. I hit again with my right. I side volleyed it and it went in."
Winters, who received MWC player of the week honors for her brilliant performance last week, was again formidable between the pipes. She had seven saves in all and stopped numerous Cougar chances. Her three-game shutout streak came to an end, however.
After the game, she remained optimistic.
"We'll come back Sunday against Utah and we'll play well against them," she said.
UNM plays host to Utah on Sunday at 12 p.m. in another important conference showdown.
