The Lobos were crushed after losing 2-1 in their conference opener against South Carolina on Friday. UNM head coach Jeremy Fishbein said it’s time to get over it.
“Now it’s an opportunity to get back at it,” he said. “Our challenge now is ‘Hey can you learn from it?’ ‘Can you be motivated?’”
Tonight, the Lobos (5-2-1) will get the opportunity to make improvements when hosting the University of San Francisco Dons for a non-conference match.
The last meeting between the Dons and the Lobos was back in 2009. The match took place at the UNM Men’s Soccer Complex, and USF was coming in ranked 22nd. The Dons recorded a 1-0 victory over New Mexico.
San Francisco had a decent 2014 season with an overall record of 11-6-2. However, this year is proving to be a struggle for the Dons, who are currently 2-8-0. So far this season, USF has been outscored 25-11, outshot 152-105 and has lost all eight of its away matches.
The Dons collected two losses last week. On Thursday it was a 1-2 overtime loss to CSU Bakersfield and on Sunday it was a 1-3 loss to UC Davis. With these, the Dons are now on a six-game losing streak.
UNM was riding a five-game winning streak before the loss at South Carolina. The team is still undefeated at home and has not really struggled to outshoot its opponents.
But this doesn’t mean the Lobos can take it easy. Fishbein said his team needed to work on staying focused for the complete 90 minutes of the match, as well as learning to come out with intensity and enthusiasm.
The Lobos have yet to score a goal in the first half of any match this season, which, according to Fishbein, keeps putting the team in tough situations.
Although lack of early scoring has not been the ideal game plan for the Lobos, the NCAA released its initial RPI rankings on Monday and UNM checked in at No. 15.
Not a bad place to be halfway through the season, but nothing can be taken for granted at this point.
"Rankings and stuff change quickly," Fishbein said, "but we were really happy with that RPI. The loss to South Carolina probably changed it significantly. We probably would've been number five or seven if we had gotten the result, but we're sitting good right now at 15.”
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Fishbein said his team has very talented players and he is happy with the lineup he is putting out. He added that if the Lobos can make the improvements he asked for, he has no doubt that UNM will be “a very, very good team.”
“We have a good remaining schedule and our destiny is in our hands," Fishbein said.
Isabel Gonzalez is a sports reporter for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @cisabelg.
