Complete Release in PDF Format
SEATTLE U'S MANTHEI AND UT RIO GRANDE VALLEY'S IRVINE NAMED PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Seattle U's Leahi Manthei and UT Rio Grande Valley's Malia Irvine have been named the Western Athletic Conference Women's Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week, respectively, for Sept. 4-10.
Manthei, a freshman forward from Gig Harbor, Wash. (Gig Harbor High School), found four out her five shots in the back of the net in the 5-3 victory over Idaho while just playing 59 minutes of the match. She scored one in the first half and a hat trick in the second to help pull her team out of a two-goal deficit for the first time in Division 1 program history. Manthei is the first rookie to score four goals and just the fifth to record a hat trick for her program.
Irvine, a junior defender from Vancouver, Canada (Mark Isfeld Scondary), helped the back line produce two overtime ties and shutting Texas A&M- Corpus Christi over the weekend. She saw all 110 minutes against Houston Baptist and all but six minutes against Texas A&M- Corpus Christi. Irvine helped her team to a 0.42 goals against average while going undefeated.
Other offensive nominees: CSU Bakersfield's Kamari Hines assisted the first goal in the 2-1 victory over Saint Mary's and the game-winner against Grambling State… UT Rio Grande Valley's Anna Hover scored the lone goal of the weekend in the double overtime tie against Houston Baptist while tallying two shots on goal… Utah Valley's Breanna McCarter scored both goals in the 2-1 victory over Wyoming while recording three shots on goal.
Other defensive nominees: CSU Bakersfield's Jordan Bertram made six saves on the weekend while letting in two goals… Grand Canyon's Blakely Fraasch made a season high eight saves in the double overtime draw against UC Santa Barbara and tallied another four on the weekend against Houston Baptist… Utah Valley's Amanda Mangelson made numerous key stops in the 2-1 victory over Wyoming.
TOP DRAWER RECOGNITION
This week's offensive player of the week Seattle U's Leahi Manthei was recognized by Top Drawer's Team of the Week in the Honorable Mention after her four goal match against Idaho.
Last week's offensive player of the week Seattle U's Jessie Ray also found herself on the team the previous week. Ray had a large role in helping her team win the Outrigger Classic in Hawai‘i and took home Most Valuable Player honors.
Two weeks ago Kansas City's Lexi Howard was recognized on Honorable Mention. The Team of the Week consists of 11 players from Division 1 and is selected by a Top Drawer representative.
MORE TIME WAS ENOUGH FOR ONLY ONE
Out of the five games that went into double overtime this past week all but one match resulted in a tie. CSU Bakersfield was the only team that was able to snap the tie with extra minutes this past week. At the end of regulation CSUB was in a 1-1 tie with Saint Mary's but in the final two minutes of double overtime Aminah Settles found the back of the net for the third overtime victory in CSUB's history. Grand Canyon came back from a one-goal deficit to tie UC Santa Barbara 1-1. Then Kansas City put two in the back of the net to draw Creighton at two. UT Rio Grande Valley had the lead over Houston Baptist for a while but the match completed in a 1-1 stalemate. Finally, UTRGV again finished in a tie shutting out Texas A&M- Corpus Christi. With the five games that went into overtime, there was 99 minutes of free WAC play.
PROGRAM BESTS
A total of four goals for the freshman forward was enough to tally two Seattle U program firsts. Leahi Manthei came off the bench when Idaho first scored and once Seattle U was down by two, Manthei had something to say about it. A minute later she found the back of the net cutting the deficit to 2-1. The Redhawk's went into the second half tied 2-2 because of a penalty kick capitalized on by Holly Rothering. In the sixth minute of the second half, Manthei beat Idaho's goalkeeper again when she deflected a free kick which then gave Seattle U the lead for the first time. Not even four minutes later, she completed her hat trick with her head. After Idaho responded with a goal of their own, Manthei wanted one more and added it to the score sheet in the 77th minute. With her performance, not only does she now hold the record for Seattle U with four goals while being a Division 1 program but also helped her team overcome a two-goal deficit for the first time in Division 1-school history.
CSU Bakersfield has had the strongest start for their program and the quickest to five wins. Four of the five wins were determined by one goal and three of those were found in overtime. CSUB has outscored their opponents 15-11 in the first part of the season and has recorded two shutouts. The victories consisted of a 5-0 victory over Prairie View A&M, 1-0 at UTEP in double overtime, 2-1 above Denver in overtime, 2-1 at Saint Mary's in double overtime, and 2-1 over Grambling State.
PLAYING TOP 25
UT Rio Grande Valley will travel to the University of Texas on Friday and will kick off at 7 p.m. CT. Announced September 12th, Texas was ranked 21st in the national poll. They are currently undefeated with a 7-0-0 record on the season. This will be the first meeting between these two programs. UT Rio Grande Valley is coming off of an undefeated weekend tying both Houston Baptist and Texas A&M- Corpus Christi. The game will be shown on the Longhorn Network/ESPN 3.
SCHEDULE CHANGE
Grand Canyon was supposed to host Stetson this coming Thursday, but due to travel conflicts because of Hurricane Irma the match has been rescheduled to Friday at 7 p.m. PT.
COMPETITION FROM 2016 NCAA TOURNAMENT
This past weekend both UT Rio Grande Valley and Grand Canyon took on Houston Baptist who fell to Stanford last year in the NCAA tournament. UTRGV held the Huskies to a 1-1 double overtime tie in an away game to start off the weekend and Grand Canyon fell 2-0 to wrap up the weekend.
WAC teams will play in five more matches against teams that played in the NCAA Tournament last year. The next match is hosted by a WAC school and will be available to stream on the WAC Digital Network at www.wacsports.com/watch.
Sept. 15 UNLV at CSU Bakersfield, 7 p.m. PT (WDN)
Sept. 22 Utah Valley at BYU, 7 p.m. MT
Sept. 29 NM State at SMU, 5 p.m. CT
Sept. 29 Kansas City at Illinois State, 7 p.m. CT
Oct. 2 Utah Valley at Texas A&M, 7 p.m. CT
COMING TO YOU LIVE
The WAC Diginal Network will broadcast over 60 games this season including all five games of the 2017 WAC Women's Soccer Tournament in Phoenix, Arizona.