This is our weekly round-up, which will look at what happened in Lobo Sports in the last week and look ahead to the games and events for the next week. These posts will not be full game previews or recaps, but instead will look at awards awarded to Lobo players, the outcome of games, and give you a one-post location for the week ahead.
Women’s Soccer: The Lobos have started the first two weeks of the season by going 1-3-0 with the lone win coming against NMSU. The schedule has been difficult and the results at this stage don’t look great. However, I wouldn’t be too concerned at this point. Considering who they have played, the results so far are what you realistically would have expected playing #3 Florida State and #13 Texas Tech at home and playing a solid Colorado side on the road. The Lobos did have chances in the last 3 games, having at least 12 shots in each game, so hopefully those opportunities will translate to more goals soon. If the Lobos can continue to be competitive, and get a few results against the rest of the teams in their non-conference schedule, it will only help for the conference season. In their lone game of the week, look for the Lobos to get a great result when they host Idaho State on September 3rd at 2 pm.
Volleyball: The Lobos had a solid week at the Ball State Tournament, going 2-1 with the lone loss coming in 5 sets against Ball State. This week, the Lobos return home for their first home tournament at Johnson Gym as they welcome Santa Clara, Cal State Fullerton and SMU. The next win for the Lobos will be Coach Jeff Nelson’s 400-career win. The Lobos will face Santa Clara on Friday at 7:30 pm, on Saturday they will face Cal State Fullerton at 1 pm, and then will finish the weekend at 8 pm when they face SMU. I expect the home team to have a great week and finish 3-0, building up momentum for the following week when they head to Los Angeles.
Men’s Soccer: The Lobos lost their only game of the season, so far, falling to UCLA 1-0 this past Saturday. The team went into Los Angeles shorthanded, playing without defender Yuri Domiciano, who would have helped solidify the Lobos backline to where it is a real strength of the team. Despite that, the defense still played well and goalkeeper Jason Beaulieu was awarded the Conference USA Defender of the week for his work in the loss. The young Lobo side played on mostly even terms with UCLA, aside from a 15 minute stretch where UCLA had most of their scoring chances and corner kicks. UCLA also scored their lone goal during this time off a broken play in the box.
The Lobos come home for the late Lobo Greats Pat Grange and Ben Ashwill Memorial Invitational, where they’ll play host to #18 ranked University of San Diego and #13 ranked UC Santa Barbara, with Denver being the forth team at the event. The Lobos will face USD Friday night at 7 pm and will face UCSB Sunday Evening at 6 pm. It should be a great weekend of soccer and certainly worth heading out to the complex to watch.
Cross Country: The very strong Lobo teams have their first meet of the season as they head to Ruidoso to take on regional teams Texas Tech, NMSU and UTEP. The meet will be on Friday, September 4th. With the men’s team ranked #21 nationally and the women’s team ranked #2 nationally, both teams are the favorite to win the meet.
Football: The Lobo Football season kicks off this Saturday at 6 pm against Mississippi Valley State of the Football Championship Subdivision. I expect the Lobos to take control of this game early with a lot of fireworks. With this year having the potential to be a Bowl Season, it’s would be great for as many fans as possible to show up to University Stadium to cheer them on.