LARAMIE — The University of Wyoming soccer team returns to the Madrid Sports Complex this week for a pair of Mountain West Conference matches, hosting New Mexico at 3 p.m. Thursday and UTEP at 1 p.m. Sunday. Both matches will be streamed on MW+.
Wyoming has spent much of the past several weeks on the road, with seven of its last eight matches played away from Laramie. The Cowgirls won all but one of those contests and enter the homestand with a 10-3-0 overall record and a 3-1-0 mark in Mountain West play.
“It was really important in these first four (Mountain West Conference) games, three of them being on the road, that we put a stamp on the league points wise,” head coach Josh Purdum said. “We needed to have some performances to set the tone. It was really important to get those results and get out healthy. Now, we can spend some time in front of our fans and hopefully continue to push toward the top of the league.”
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The Cowgirls have nine points in conference play and are part of a four-way tie for second place, four points behind league-leading Colorado College. New Mexico also has nine points, while UTEP has six, adding importance to Wyoming’s two home matches.
Alyssa Glover leads Wyoming and the conference with seven goals and five assists for 19 points. She is three points shy of the school record of 69 career points and already holds the program record with 26 career goals.
Isabel Vasco and Brooke Brown have each scored five goals for the Cowgirls. Brown scored three times in Wyoming’s most recent match, a 4-2 victory at UNLV, recording the program’s first hat trick in 10 years. She also became the first freshman in program history to accomplish the feat.
Goalkeeper Haley Bartel leads the conference with seven clean sheets. She ranks second in goals-against average at 0.86, with 35 saves and 11 goals allowed.
New Mexico enters Thursday’s match with Nicole Anderson tied with Glover for the conference lead with seven goals. Presley Devey has six goals and three assists for 15 points, tying Anderson’s total. Alyson Campbell has started all 12 matches in goal for the Lobos, recording 50 saves and allowing 19 goals for a 1.60 goals-against average.
UTEP also has a player among the conference’s leading scorers. Zeta McDannels has seven goals, while no other Miner has scored more than three times this season. Goalkeeper Savanah Finley ranks ahead of Bartel in goals-against average at 0.70, with 43 saves and nine goals allowed in 13 starts.
Both opponents hold the all-time series advantage over Wyoming. New Mexico leads the series 21-9-8, while UTEP holds a 5-1-1 advantage.
Following Sunday’s match against the Miners, Wyoming will travel for its final regular-season road trip, playing at Colorado College on Oct. 24 before facing Grand Canyon on Oct. 28.
