Photo: Ansel Casper
Team of the Week
Vermont
Vermont beat conference foe Bryant, who was also in the top 5 of our coaches’ poll this past week. The Catamounts came out of the gate quickly with two first-half goals from Philipp Kuehn to help propel them to victory. The win puts Vermont at the top of the America East with two games to go, and also helped them climb up to #2 in our coaches’ poll this week. The Catamounts now have a 25-game unbeaten streak.
Next for Vermont is a home game versus UAlbany on Friday.
Offensive Player of the Week
Nicholas Simmonds – Freshman – Forward – Virginia
Simmonds is the first freshman to earn our Offensive Player of the Week Award. The young forward had a hat trick and an assist against Clemson on Saturday night putting him at 11 goal contributions (8g/3a) in his rookie campaign. He currently leads the Cavaliers in goals and goal contributions.
Virginia’s final game of the regular season is on the road against SMU where they will look to push for an ACC regular season title.
Defensive Player of the Week
Sam Bjork – Graduate Student – Defender – Seton Hall
Bjork scored on the road against Lehigh midweek for Seton Hall. The Swedish defender then helped keep a clean sheet on the road against St. John’s (NY) over the weekend. These last two wins continued Seton Hall’s unbeaten run to seven games, and a place in our coaches’ poll.
Bjork and co. now travel to Creighton for a Big East matchup against Creighton.
Goalkeeper of the Week
Josh Caron – R-Junior – High Point
Caron helped High Point maintain their advantage with a big penalty kick save near the end of the first half when the score was still 1-0. In total, Caron made six saves against Gardner-Webb and helped the Panthers lock in their three peat regular season Big South Conference title before they hit the road again this week against Davidson.
Freshman of the Week
Riley Moloney – Defender – NC State
Moloney played the full 90 in both games this past week for the Wolfpack. His standout performance was on the road when he helped NC State beat Duke providing the game winning assist and then helping the backline maintain the clean sheet even after going down two men. Moloney is now second in assists among Division I freshman with 7.
Moloney and the Wolfpack host Syracuse on Friday as they look for a win and other results to go their way to claim the ACC regular season title.
