It was a game of a lot of chances, but the only one that went in was for the opposition last Sunday as DU suffered a 1-0 loss to New Mexico at a rain drenched home field. The weather was cold from the beginning and with the rain starting to pour on late in the first half, things became sloppy and that is exactly what type of a game it was.”With the weather, I think it became a little bit of an ugly game, but overall I think we did a good job and they are the number one team in the country right now for a reason,” said Coach Chad Ashton.DU opened Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play last weekend on Friday as they defeated UNLV 2-0 thanks to goals by junior Ben Mendozza and freshman Greg Fiddick. The Pioneers were hoping that their long and hard week of practice would pay off with a win over the best team in the country on Sunday, but it was just not meant to be.”It was a scrappy goal, but with the conditions it was expected,” said senior Travis Hendricks. The Lobos scored 28:04 into the first period on a goal that barely squeaked by sophomore goaltender Matt Bredehoft in front of the 327 spectators on hand.”I think in order to beat a good team you have to finish chances and we didn’t do that and you have to give their keeper some credit,” said Ashton.The Pioneers had possession for most of the second half and had numerous chances, but could not put any of them past New Mexico goaltender Mike Graczyk. “I would say offensively trying to score goals this year has been one of the hardest things, just unlucky,” said Hendricks.Overall Denver outshot the Lobos 12-9 in a game that featured six yellow cards, three for each team. With the loss the Pioneer’s record drops to 5-4-1 overall and 1-1-0 in MPSF play while New Mexico improves to 9-0-1 overall and 1-0-1 in MPSF play, with the tie coming Friday evening to Air Force.”I think being at home we thought we had to bring a lot of passion and emotion to the game, I thought we did both of those things, they wore down a little bit,” said Ashton.Denver will next be in action this Sunday when they take on MPSF foe Air Force at 2 p.m. on the soccer field.

Women’s Soccer:The lady Pioneers stayed undefeated in conference play with a win and tie over the weekend.DU opened the weekend on Friday with a 2-1 victory at Florida International. Sophomore Taryn Hemmings put in her fourth goal of the season eight minutes into the game to give Denver a 1-0 lead.Nine minutes into the second half, Rachael Fry put in her first goal of the season and extended the lead to 2-0. The Pioneers received stellar goaltending and held on for the 2-1 victory.On Saturday DU trailed for most of the match, but tied the score at one with 15 minutes left thanks to a goal by junior Margo Lochmiller.After the weekend the Pioneer’s record now stands at 6-5-2 overall and 3-0-1 in conference play.