DENVER- Kansas City's Lexie Howard and Utah Valley's Brooklyn Nielsen have been named the Western Athletic Conference Women's Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week, respectively, for Oct. 16-22.
Howard, a junior forward/midfielder from Kearney, Mo. (Kearney High School), scored the game-winning goals in both the 2-1 victory over UT Rio Grande Valley and the 1-0 victory over NM State to help her team clinch the No. 1 seed in the WAC Tournament. She led the team in shots, shots on goal, and goals on the weekend. Howard played 164 minutes and recorded eight shots with five of those on goal.
Nielsen, a sophomore goalkeeper from Sandy, Utah (Jordan High School), led the Utah Valley defense to a pair of shutout victories over Grand Canyon and CSU Bakersfield to help her team clinch the No. 2 seed in the WAC Tournament. She made two key saves in the 1-0 game against Grand Canyon and registered five saves in the 1-0 shutout over CSU Bakersfield. Nielsen played all 180 minutes in the box and was faced with 15 shots.
Other offensive nominees: NM State's Devin Hart scored a hat trick as well as assisted two others in the 8-0 victory over Chicago State … UT Rio Grande Valley's Sarah Bonney was involved in the first three goals of the 6-0 victory over Chicago State scoring the first two and assisting the third… Utah Valley's Breanna DeWaal scored both goals for her team over the weekend in the 1-0 victory over Grand Canyon and the 1-0 victory over CSU Bakersfield.
Other defensive nominees: Kansas City's Maddi Cipolla led the Roos defensively playing all 180 minutes only allowing one goal… NM State's Dmitri Fong earned her fifth shutout of the season and only allowed one goal on the weekend after facing 37 shots… UT Rio Grande Valley's Tuva Rolstad Nilsen was the defensive leader over the 1-1 weekend playing 135 minutes.