Several teams made major impacts on the road this past week. Penn State had a successful road trip to Michigan, and Colorado got results in Arizona. Meanwhile, Notre Dame and Izzy Engle are starting to build momentum at the right time.
Here’s our Week 11 women’s soccer awards:
Team of the Week
Penn State
Penn State had a challenging two game road trip in Michigan this past week and responded with a ranked win against No. 5 Michigan State and a draw against No. 24 Michigan. Four points on a road trip against ranked opponents is a great haul and put themselves into the Nation’s Top 25.
Offensive Player of the Week
Izzy Engle – Junior – Forward – Notre Dame
Izzy Engle is rounding into form after recovering from her injury. She has now made four straight starts and has scored in three straight games including a brace this past week against No. 15 Florida State. Engle and Notre Dame are building momentum right before the postseason.
Defensive Player of the Week
Faith Leyba – Senior – Center back – Colorado
Faith Leyba and Colorado had a massive week in Arizona last week beating Arizona and Arizona State on the road. Leyba helped keep clean sheets and scored in both games. Colorado is another team building momentum at the right time as they have now won four of their last five.
Goalkeeper of the Week
Kate Kleinsmith – Sophomore – Seton Hall
Kate Kleinsmith and Seton Hall started last week with a tough 0-2 loss to Villanova but then responded with a 1-0 win against Georgetown. Kleinsmith made eight saves in the shutout win. She has now made 34 saves in her past five games and has a ridiculous 90.9% save rate on the season.
Freshman of the Week
Ireland Churchill – Forward – Texas A&M
Texas A&M has struggled to get results the past couple weeks but Ireland Churchill keeps finding goals. She scored her fourth brace of the season in a 2-3 loss against Missouri and has now scored braces in back-to-back games. Churchill is tied for the most goals scored by a freshman this season (11).
