Divided into two separate teams, the University of New Mexico women’s soccer team stepped on the field for their first game action of the year on Thursday night.
In the intrasquad scrimmage, Cherry ended up defeating Silver by a 3-2 count. The entire team was in attendance besides head coach Heather Dyche.
Coach Dyche is overseas in Brazil, assisting the women’s national team. To fill in for her coaching duties were assistant coaches Karly Nelson and Paul Maestas.
“I felt like tonight went well for the most part,” Nelson said. “I think that we definitely implemented some of the things that we worked on but we also identified some of the problem areas that we need to focus on this week.”
Coach Nelson also went said the new players have adjusted well to the college level and the returning players have aided greatly in the growing process.
One player that stood out was junior Claire Lynch. She was very quick with the ball and also communicated well with her teammates.
“It was good to see all the freshman get used to playing on this field for the first time,” Lynch said. We also actually had a lot of good opportunities and scored a lot of goals, which was good to see.”
This year’s Lobo team approaches the game far different from the way they approached it last year, according to Lynch.
“I think last year’s team we had a lot of strong and super-fast players. This year’s team is a lot more technically sound. I think that keeping the ball and moving it around is defiantly going to be one of our strengths this year.” Lynch said.
UNM is predicted to finished third in Mountain West conference play, just as they had las season, according to a preseason poll released earlier in the week. Last season the squad finished with an overall record of 10-8-2 and were eliminated in the Mountain West tournament semifinals in penalty kicks by San Jose State.
Thursday night’s preparation served as a warmup for the season’s preseason opener. The Lobos will host an exhibition match on Sunday against Eastern New Mexico at 6 p.m. The event is free to attend.
The Lobos' first regular season game is away at Texas Tech August 19th..
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