Despite hurdles, Lobo soccer is fired up for coming season

There are few things New Mexico junior defensive midfielder Kennedy Brown likes more than putting on the Lobos uniform for a match.

“It’s super special,” said Brown, a Volcano Vista alum. “Since before I could even remember, I’ve always wanted to be a Lobo. Being able to stay here, have my family watch me, friends, just the culture of Albuquerque in general, it’s been super special to me.”

And stepping out on to the field at UNM Soccer and Track Complex carries a certain responsibility, she said.

“You have ‘New Mexico’ on your chest, and I carry a ton of pride in that on the field,” Kennedy said. “I’m very go-mode, black and white, hard-headed. Doesn’t really matter if I’m here or away, I try and make sure I’m consistent throughout.”

The Lobos program has struggled over the past two seasons as coach Heather Dyche rebuilds the program with younger players. But now, those players are coming of age, and carrying a pride that runs deep.

“I think, collectively, you have to do that every season and push and get better,” she said. “But I also really do think that we have a program that we’ve been lucky enough that it hasn’t been rattled by the transfer portal and we have players who are staying here for four and five years, and there’s a cycle to that. If you look at the age of the players that we started the last two years, I mean, I think at certain points last season we started almost entirely sophomores and freshmen.”

But now those players are ready to show the seasoning has paid off, said junior attacking midfielder Alysa Whelchel.

“We will be a lot better,” she said. “We’ve prepared a lot on and off the field, just with our culture and our mindset about things, so I think that’s going to fuel us to do a lot better this season.”

New Mexico went 7-6-5 last season and 3-5-3 in Mountain West play, so just turning a few of those draws into wins would have made a big difference, Dyche said.

“I think anyone that’s seen us the past couple of years has seen that we’ve dominated possession, we’ve dominated stats, and we come away with a tie, and it’s just not good enough,” she said. “We have to, in those moments, be able to kind of find a way to win. And I think if you look at the previous teams that we’ve had a ton of success with, it wasn’t always the prettiest soccer, but it was in those moments that you find a way, and we’ve talked a lot about that. They’ve worked really hard at it, and I really believe that’ll translate.”

The biggest translation will have to come in putting shots away, Dyche said, and the Lobos are already looking for help in that area as leading goal scorer Presley Devey will miss the season with an injury.

“It’s not going to be one person, which it’s never one person. But sometimes, through injury, people kind of take on a different role and realize that it’s going to need to be them,” she said. “Nicole Anderson, Alysa Welchel, Mercedes Morris, the local kid, like they just have this drive in them right now.”

In addition, redshirt freshman Savannah Sanchez, who was a goal-scoring phenom at Hope Christian, is looking to make an impact.

“Savannah Sanchez has been unbelievable in preseason, which is another local kid who we know can score goals,” Dyche said. “So it’s going to be a battle, but it’s going to be a bunch of them who are going to have to do it together.”

If the scoring can come together this team has a chance to do big things, Kennedy said.

“I think a lot of it was focusing on us, focusing on our toughness, on our culture,” she said. “What can we control? Because at the end of the day, soccer is such a team sport, and every single person matters, regardless of if they’re playing 90 minutes or if they’re not playing at all. So we really try and emphasize every single person can bring so much to this team, whether you’re injured, whether you’re our leading goal scorer, and so I think that our biggest emphasis this year is just really focus on the controllable (things) and ride the waves of the highs and the lows and be consistent throughout.”