New Mexico returns and other weekend thoughts

I. There is life after talking heads for New Mexico
It won’t fill time for any of the sports-blather radio shows. Pundits won’t work themselves into a lather, or snidely serve up coded language while debating what it means on television. Heck, as far as I know, it will even go ignored on the website I work for. But New Mexico had a heck of a weekend of women’s soccer.

Playing without Elizabeth Lambert, who now seems to be listed as Liz for reasons that you can probably figure out for yourself with a Google search, New Mexico rolled over Montana by a 7-0 to open the season and then followed it with a surprisingly decisive 3-0 margin of victory against Nebraska. Lambert sat out the games as part of the suspension handed down for the much-publicized incident against BYU, but she will be eligible to play next week when New Mexico travels to Milwaukee for two suddenly intriguing games against UW-Milwaukee and Marquette.

Picked fifth in the Mountain West preseason poll, New Mexico scored just 29 goals in 21 games last season, and never more than eight in a two-game stretch. But with leading scorer Jennifer Williams, two goals on the weekend, among 10 returning starters, it’s a team worth keeping an eye on for strictly soccer reasons.

The Lobos even managed to add a marriage proposal to the weekend haul, offering a nice moment for a program that closed last season in controversy. A fourth-year student with junior eligibility who appeared in just one game last season, Kerrin Stephan accepted boyfriend Kris Bakhois’ on-field surprise on-field proposal (you can get the whole story from this video).

II. North Carolina is going to do what North Carolina does
Who was suggesting the Tar Heels perhaps weren’t the preseason No. 1? Ah, yes, I guess that was me. At least I had some company from other polls.

Two games way from Chapel Hill, six goals scored by six players and no goals conceded by a freshman goalkeeper and, with the exception of the first half of the first game, an entirely new back line. Who needs Casey Nogueira, Tobin Heath, Whitney Engen, Kristi Eveland, Nikki Washington, Jessica McDonald, Lucy Bronze and Ashlyn Harris, anyway?

Given all the personnel losses, back-to-back 3-0 wins against No. 7 Texas A&M and Michigan State in College Station, Texas were almost as impressive an opening salvo as last year’s 7-2 win against UCLA — maybe more impressive.

The returning core took the lead out of the gates — quite literally when junior Meghan Klingenberg scored 129 seconds into the opener against Texas A&M off an assist from redshirt senior Ali Hawkins. Hawkins added a goal of her own and Klingenberg assisted on sophomore Amber Books’ tally to produce the final margin.

Sunday’s goals came from some of the players the Tar Heels need to step forward this season, including freshamn Kealia Ohai’s first career goal. Alyssa Rich and Brittani Bartok scored the other two goals against Michigan State.

Of just as much note in that game was a back line of Crystal Dunn, Megan Brigman and Rachel Wood. All three played the full 90 minutes, the second game in a row doing so for Dunn, a freshman, and Wood, a redshirt sophomore who missed last season, stepping in for Engen and Eveland. Brigman’s assignment came after Rachel Givan, the lone returning starter on defense, didn’t play in the second half of the opening game or any of the second game. In his postgame podcast, North Carolina coach Anson Dorrance described Givan as “banged up” but didn’t elaborate on her status moving forward.

III. Georgetown may be ready for a bigger stage
American hasn’t had much luck of late against its Washington, D.C. rival, but Georgetown’s 9-0 win on the “road” Saturday was something else entirely. In winning the annual meeting in each of the last five seasons, the Hoyas outscored the Eagles by a cumulative 9-1 margin. They needed just 65 minutes to put nine more goals on the board Saturday in front of an American University record crowd of 1,511 (which presumably had its share of visiting supporters).

Ingrid Wells, Camille Trujillo and freshman reserve Alexa St. Martin each scored twice, while reserves Kaitlin Brenn, Catherine Cabot and Colleen Dinn added single goals.

Wells added two assists and remains very much the face of a program that is catching up to the pace she sets. On a one-for-one basis, she’s as good as any player in the Big East — including that outpost in South Bend. And in gradually beefing up their nonconference schedule (it’s still not the stuff books are written about, but this year at least includes games at Stanford and Santa Clara), the Hoyas
are helping their own cause in pursuit of their first NCAA tournament trip since 2007, which was in turn the first in school history.

Given geography, American probably isn’t going away anytime soon when it comes to Georgetown’s schedule. But the score Saturday may suggest it’s the kind of game Georgetown is moving beyond as a program.

IV. Kelsey Hodges set the bar pretty high for herself
Chances are, you don’t know who Kelsey Hodges is unless you know way, way too much about Rice football (her dad played there). I didn’t know her name until checking the box scores from Friday’s games around the nation. But the North Texas freshman had about as good an introduction to college soccer as a person can, scoring three goals and leading the Mean Green with eight shots in an 8-0 win against Texas Southern (North Texas outshot its opponent 37-2 in the game). The hometown kid from Denton, Texas couldn’t add any more goals Sunday against Missouri State, but North Texas still won the game 2-1.

V. There is soccer after Kiersten Dallstream in the Palouse
And after Carly Dobratz and Elysse Van Leer, for that matter. Washington State tied the school record wins last season and advanced beyond the first round of the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1994. Not a bad year’s work. Still, it felt a little like Washington State missed its window for something even memorable after dropping a 1-0 decision on the road at Maryland in the second round. Dallstream, Dobratz and Van Leer, who totaled 21 of the team’s 42 goals and 15 of its 36 assists, were part of a talented senior class that coach Matt Potter had to replace in the ultra-competitive Pac-10.

A tall order? Well, against one of the best teams from the only league that rivals the Pac-10, Washington State lost its season opener but perhaps gained some momentum. The Cougars came out on the short end of a 1-0 loss to Florida State, courtesy of a second-half goal from Amanda DaCosta, but appeared to hold their own in forcing Seminoles keeper Kelsey Wys to make six saves. Potter’s team started three freshman, including twin sisters Micaela and Morgan Castain, who accounted for nine of the team’s 13 shots (the Seminoles were credited with 16 shots).

Quality losses count for something at this point of the season, but so do bounce-back wins. Washington State earned just that with a 1-0 win Sunday against Utah, important from both a momentum and fitness standpoint, considering the Cougars used just two players off the bench against the Seminoles. They had better be right both physically and mentally because they don’t play in Pullman again until October, but keep an eye on this team.