by Kenn Rodriguez
Daily Lobo
The UNM women soccer team's Mountain West Conference Championship tournament opener would be perfect for Fox Sports-like hype.
Here is the storyline. This afternoon, the third-seeded Lobos (10-7-1, 3-2-1 MWC) take on the sixth-seeded Air Force Academy.
Not only did the Falcons send UNM packing from last year's MWC tournament with a 1-0 first-round defeat, but AFA (7-11-0, 2-4-0) also earned its first MWC win this year by beating the Lobos 1-0 at the UNM Soccer Complex.
So UNM will be looking for revenge, right? Not quite. Lobo head coach Kit Vela is above such hype. It's just another game for her young squad, she said Tuesday.
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"It's the same old thing as the last two years," she said. "How well we do depends on what team shows up."
Lately the Lobos have shown inconsistencies. Vela was critical of the team's performance in its Oct. 25 loss to Air Force.
She was equally critical of the team's play in the first 35 minutes of the season-ending match against the University of Wyoming Oct. 27, which UNM won 1-0.
The problem with the young team, she said, is that it has a hard time getting motivated to play teams that are at or below its level.
"It's just one of those things," she said. "They have to learn have to play the same way every game. They're basically a young team. In the games we played 90 minutes with intensity, we usually come out with a win, a tie or some good result. When we've played up, down and all round, we've lost.
"We're not good enough to have an off game. But we're a lot better than we were last year."
The Lobos have an identical conference record as last year, but the difference between teams is noticeable.
The 2001 edition was winless in non-conference play. This year, UNM finished 7-5 outside the conference, which helped it earn the first winning season since 1997.
Vela said the winning season was an important step for the program and reflected well on the effort the team put in, both during the campaign and the off-season.
"I think it's a huge accomplishment for the kids," she said. "They've put in the work and mentally they've gotten stronger. We're a long way from where we want to be as a program, but (a winning season) is still a huge accomplishment."
The 2002 MWC tourney could be the most interesting in years.
Host school Brigham Young University (13-5-0, 6-0) went through conference play undefeated to earn the top seed, but was hardly dominant. The Cougars took 3-2 decisions over UNM, and the Unviersity of Nevada at Las Vegas as well as a 2-1 win versus the Unviersity of Utah.
Similarly, the second-seeded Utah (11-2-3, 4-1-1) was nationally ranked for much of the year, but didn't improve much compared to last year's team, according to Vela.
Even cellar-dweller like Wyoming (4-11-1, 0-6-0) showed improvement this year.
Overall, the conference is strong as it's ever been, she said.
"Our conference used to be rated 13th and we've moved up to ninth," she said. "That's a big jump in one year. It's not only that the top teams are more competitive, we're all playing more competitive non-conference schedules and doing well."
Both Utah and Brigham Young were ranked in the NSCAA/Adidas West regional rankings this past week. The Cougars were in eighth place while the Utes were tied for ninth with the University of Califronia at Berkeley.
Today's UNM-AFA match starts at 4:30 p.m. at BYU's South Field in Provo, Utah.
The match is preceded by the contest between fourth seeded San Diego State University (11-6-0, 3-3-0) and the fifth seed UNLV (10-7-1, 2-4-0).
Utah plays Wyoming in tonight's finale at 7.
BYU takes on the winner of the SDSU-UNLV match Thursday at 7 p.m.
The other semifinal matches the UNM-AFA winner versus the Utah-Wyoming winner. That game starts at 4:30 p.m.
The championship match takes place Saturday at noon.
The MWC tournament champion receives an automatic bid to the 2002 NCAA Women's College Cup tournament.
For an exclusive post-game report on Wednesday's game, visit www.dailylobo.com Wednesday night.
