Photo by John Schreiber, The Daily Campus; SMU’s Chase Wileman fights for a head ball with Centenary’s Aaron Volanski during Tuesday’s game.

The SMU men’s soccer team leaves this weekend for New Mexico to defend its No. 1 ranking and undefeated record in the TLC Plumbing and Utility Invitational.

The Mustangs will be facing the No. 21 ranked Lobos of the University of New Mexico today. The Lobos are 2-2-1 and present a challenging midfield match up for the Mustangs. They are anchored by David Gualdarama and Chris Wright, who lead the Lobos in goal scoring.

In order to win the midfield battle, Senior captain Chase Wileman says the Mustangs need to “drop back and play more defensive” in order to contain the Lobos’ top scoring midfielders.

This defensive attitude has worked for the Mustangs who have allowed one goal in their first seven games. In order to keep up the strong defense, coach Hyndman says the Mustangs need to “keep doing the little things that all add up.”

The little things that Coach Hyndman needs the team to accomplish are to play defense as a team and to have the desire to continue winning.

These elements are also necessary to beat the Dayton Flyers on Sunday. The Flyers lost their first three games, but have recently caught fire winning their last three games without allowing a goal. They will also present a challenge to the Mustangs, but look for the Mustang midfield to control the tempo and for the defense to allow few Flyer shots on goal.

Coach Hyndman believes that key elements to “success” in soccer are a blend of “talent and team chemistry.” Both are necessary in order to be successful.

This team first attitude that emerges from Coach Hyndman’s formula for “success” can be seen in the Mustangs’ scoring distribution. Nine players have two goals or more and nobody on the team has more than three goals. It is impossible to know who will score in the two games, but it is a safe bet that the scoring will be spread evenly.

With a balanced scoring attack and an attitude that everyone plays defense, look for the Mustangs to stay undefeated over the weekend by knocking off both the Lobos and the streaking Flyers.

Photo by John Schreiber, The Daily Campus; Mustang’s sophomore Scott Geppert scored two goals in Tuesday’s win against Centenary at Westcott Field.