The stage is set for the Conference USA Conference Men’s Soccer Tournament Championship, as the Lobos (11-6-2) has advanced to the final with an exciting 2-1 win over #1 seed Charlotte. On the other side of the bracket FIU (10-6-2) advanced to the final with wins over #6 seed UAB and #7 seed ODU. In their win, the Lobos got production from their two leading scorers, with Chris Wehan scoring his 7th goal of the season to give the Lobos a 1-0 lead early in the second half, and leading scorer Niko Hansen gave the Lobos a huge 2-0 lead with 20 minutes left in the match. The Lobo backline played great, aside from the one misplay that led to the Charlotte goal. The Lobos will need to get production from both Wehan Hansen, and their backline once again to seal their bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Author: Zach
Women’s Basketball Game 1: Fairleigh Dickinson
The Coach Bradbury era tips off for real on Saturday afternoon when the Lobos take on Fairleigh Dickinson in both team’s season opener. The Lobos will be heavy favorites in this game, but that doesn’t mean they can just show up and expect to win. Last season, Fairleigh Dickinson went 11-22 and had an RPI of 314. In comparison, the Lobos went 17-15 with an RPI of 171. This will be a good opening game for the Lobos before things get a little tougher in a couple of days, when they will take on NMSU.
Stat Comparison:
| Lobos | Knights | |
| Points Per Game | 61.3 | 64.8 |
| Points Allowed Per Game | 57.6 | 71.3 |
| Rebounds Per Game/Margin | 39.2, +3.3 | 39.6, +.5 |
| Assists Per Game | 13.5 | 11.5 |
| Turnovers Per Game | 14.6 | 18 |
| Steals Per Game | 8.8 | 7.5 |
| Blocks Per Game | 2.9 | 3.3 |
| Field Goal % | 37.7% | 39.7% |
| 3 Point% | 27.7% | 30.1% |
| Free Throw % | .651% | 71.5% |
These stats are from last season and there are quite a few changes for both teams, so it will be interesting to see how different the two teams are from last year.
Fairleigh Dickinson:
This could be tough year for the Knights, as they lose 3 of their top 4 scorers, including two players that averaged over 16 points per game. The top returning player for the Knights is Brianna Thomas, who averaged 6.8 points and 4.5 rebounds, if the Knights want to be good this season, Thomas must take a step forward and become a player that averages 12 points and 8 rebounds a game. The Knights will need newcomers and returning players to fill the void left by their star players from a year ago. In my opinion, Fairleigh Dickinson is one of the two most winnable games this season, so the Lobos need to make the most of this opportunity.
What to Watch:
- It will be interesting to see Coach Bradbury’s rotation early in the year. In his press conference earlier this week, Bradbury said he would like to use a 7-player rotation, which means a lot of players could get left out.
- How quickly will the Lobos be able to get comfortable playing this up-tempo style of basketball? If the Lobos can find good shots early in the shot clock and can keep turnovers to under 13 a game, the transition shouldn’t be too rough.
- How well will the two centers in the game at the same time play together? Kianna Keller and Rachelle van der Keijl will be the starting front court early this year for the Lobos, so it will be interesting to see how well that works.
- Is Cherise Beynon able to take the step forward and become the star of the team? Beynon shared the role with Shumpert as a sophomore last year and will be counted on for a lot of the Lobos’ success this season.
- The point guard position will be worth watching at all yea. How much will the lone true point guard Laneah Bryan play and who are the other players that will play the lead guard position?
Schedule Breakdown:
All records and RPI are from last season results, so while these will change from year to year, they will give us some understanding of who is good and who the Lobos should beat.
| Fairleigh Dickinson | 11-22 | 314 |
| NMSU H/A | 24-5 | 94 |
| @ Texas Tech | 13-18 | 143 |
| Tulsa | 12-19 | 190 |
| BYU/St. Joseph’s | 25-7, 14-15 | 22, 123 |
| SMU | 13-18 | 197 |
| Minnesota | 20-12 | 86 |
| UTEP | 28-5 | 36 |
| Eastern Illinois | 3-25 | 339 |
| @ Marquette | 14-16 | 105 |
The Lobos will play eight of their eleven non-conference games at home this season, which could allow the Lobos to get confidence going into the conference schedule.
Bold Predictions:
- Cherise Beynon will average 17 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals a game.
- Mykeil Burleson will average 8+ point and 3+ assists per game
- Kianna Keller and Rachelle van der Keijl will combine for over 5 blocks a game.
- Jaisa Nunn and van der Keijl will both average 8+ points and 8+ rebounds a game.
- Emily Lines will lead the Lobos in 3 Point % and average two 3 point makes a game.
- Lobos will finish in the top 4 of the conference.
- Lobos will win 20 games and make great strides as a team come January.
- Cherise Beynon will be named MW Player of the Year.
- van der Keijl and Nunn will make an all-conference team.
- Coach Bradbury will win coach of the year.
- Lobos will average 77+ points per game.
- Lobos will make a run in the conference tournament.
Game Prediction:
I have the Lobos winning the game against Fairleigh Dickinson easily. If the Lobos can play their style of play, you could be looking at a 20+ point win. I put the odds of the Lobos winning this game at 85% with the Lobos winning this game 85-63.
Game Info:
Who: New Mexico Lobos (0-0) vs. Fairleigh Dickinson Knights (0-0)
When: Saturday, November 12, 2 PM MT
Where: WisePies Arena AKA The PIT, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Steam: LoboTV
Men’s Soccer: CUSA Tournament Semis Preview
The match of the day on the opening day of the Conference USA Tournament was, without question, the match between the Lobos (10-6-2) and Kentucky. The Lobos twice found themselves down a goal and twice were able to respond with an equalizer within a couple of minutes. The Lobos were able to get goals from Sam Gleadle and Nick Rochowski to end the match in a 2-2 draw. Since it was in tournament play, it went to the always-tense penalty shootout. Coach Fishbein put in backup goalie and PK specialist Ford Parker for the shootout. What Parker ended up doing is one of the most impressive feats I have seen, saving 4 of the 5 attempts and allowing the Lobos to win the shootout 2-1 to advance to the semifinals. It is strange to say that the man of the match was someone that didn’t actually play a second of the match.
Women’s Basketball Team Preview
The Lobo women’s basketball team went 2-0 during their exhibition season, winning games against two Division II schools in Fort Lewis (101-48) and Eastern New Mexico (89-70). The Lobos will officially kick off the Coach Mike Bradbury era Saturday afternoon against Fairleigh Dickinson. While there is little that we can take away from the first two exhibitions, we can look at the numbers each player had last season and try to guess what kind of growth we could see in each player. It will be difficult to see what the impact of Coach Bradbury’s system will be on each player, since his system is completely different to what Coach Sanchez ran, so each stat should be taken with a grain of salt.
Men’s Soccer: CUSA Tournament Preview
The Lobos (10-6-1, 4-3-1) head to Huntington, West Virginia for the Conference USA Soccer Tournament. In the seven team field, the Lobos are the #5 seed and will face Kentucky in the first round. The Lobos are in a situation where they could not make the NCAA tournament at all or could even get a national seed if they are able to win the tournament. As we have seen in the past with seeding, the Lobos can’t leave anything in the hands of the selection committee and must play this tournament like it is their last match of the season. There are two very good wins available for the Lobos in the first two rounds of the tournament, so they have a great chance to improve their resume.
Men’s Soccer vs. Old Dominion Match Preview
Tonight is Senior Night for the Lobos (9-6-1, 3-3-1), as well as the regular season finale. The Lobos were able to clinch a spot in the conference tournament with their win on Sunday against South Carolina, with goals by seniors Chris Wehan and Niko Hansen. While the field is set, there is plenty for the Lobos to play for on Friday. First, the Lobos could possibly move up to the #3 seed in the tournament with a win and some help. Second, the Lobos look to go undefeated at home this season, which would be a huge accomplishment. Finally, they could end this senior class’ home careers with a huge win against the ODU Monarchs (5-7-2, 2-4-1). This will be a night of celebrating the five seniors that have done so much for this program and I hope that a great Lobo crowd shows up for this match.
Men’s Soccer vs. South Carolina Match Preview
The Lobos (8-6-1, 2-3-1) return to the friendly confines of the UNM Soccer Complex for their last two matches of the Conference USA schedule. The Lobos are coming off a very important road win at UAB that has opened many possibilities for seeding in the conference tournament. It starts Sunday night against second-place South Carolina (9-5-1, 4-1-1). If the Lobos are able to win this match, it gives them the possibility to move all the way up to the number 2 seed. This is such a huge match for the Lobos, where a win would seal their bid to the conference tournament and gives them a good shot of making the NCAA Tournament.
Men’s Soccer At UAB Match Preview
The Lobos (7-6-1, 1-3-1) have their final Conference USA road match of the season when they take on UAB (6-6-3, 2-3-1) in a huge conference match tonight. With the disappointing draw against Marshall on Saturday, the Lobos need a result to help cement their spot in the conference tournament. The Lobos have to find a way to rebound from their recent struggles. While the Lobos haven’t played bad this season, they have been unable to finish off big matches, mainly due to struggling in the final third of the field. With there being questions about Niko Hansen’s availability, the Lobos will need for other attacking players to step up. If the Lobos are able to win this match against UAB, it will give them pretty stable position for the conference tournament with two home matches remaining before the conference tournament field is set.
Men’s Soccer at Denver Match Preview
The Lobos (7-5-0, 1-3-0) continue their road trip Wednesday night, looking to get back on track in their last non-conference match against a great Denver (12-0-2) squad that is highly ranked in every college soccer poll. The former conference rival of the Lobos in the MSPF have become a great program the last couple of years, including going undefeated last season and thus far this season. The Lobos have a chance to get their groove back with this match and this is their last chance during the regular season for a great win. It won’t be an easy match for the Lobos, but the pressure will be on Denver to continue their undefeated season. It will be very important for the Lobos to find chances early in the match for Niko Hansen and Chris Wehan, as well as Devon Boyce, Sam Gleadle and Luke Lawrence if they are in the starting eleven. While the Lobos have struggled on the road so far this season, the only disappointing result based on pre-match expectations was the match against FAU, so you have to think that the Lobo backline will want to get back on track after allowing two goals against FAU.
Men’s Soccer at FAU Match Preview
The Lobos (7-4-0, 1-2-0) return to action on Saturday with a road match at FAU (3-6-1, 1-2-0). This is a very important match for the Lobos, as a win would keep them in the running to win the conference regular season title. If the Lobos are able to win this match and their match at Denver on Wednesday, a national seed in the NCAA Tournament is still very much in play with only one road match remaining before the conference tournament. The Lobos have more talent than FAU, but the Owls have played much better at home than on the road this season, so the Lobos can’t take them lightly. The Lobos need to put pressure on FAU early in the match and find a goal in the first 60 minutes to put all the pressure on FAU to find a goal.