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KANSAS CITY'S HOWARD AND UT RIO GRANDE VALLEY'S RAMIREZ NAMED PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Kansas City's Lexie Howard and UT Rio Grande Valley's Marcela Ramirez have been named the Western Athletic Conference Women's Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week, respectively, for Sept. 11-17.
Howard, a junior forward/midfielder from Kearney, Mo. (Kearney High School), had a seven point weekend which included three goals and an assist for Kansas City. She produced a perfect shooting percentage on Friday in the 4-0 victory over Missouri State as her two shots were both on goal and found the back of the net in only 43 minutes of play. Howard also had the game-winning goal and an assist in the 2-0 triumph over South Dakota. She now leads her team with six goals and leads the WAC with15 points on the season. This is the second time this season Howard has been named WAC Offensive Player of the Week.
Ramirez, a senior defender from Miami (John A. Ferguson Senior High School) held the backline for UT Rio Grande Valley as they took undefeated No. 21 Texas to overtime for just the second time this year in the 1-0 loss on the road. She also helped her team prevent opposition from getting good looks down the middle in the shutout win over Incarnate Word. This was Ramirez's second and third game playing in the defensive position as she was previously in the midfield. She was one of two who played all 180:13 this weekend.
Other offensive nominees: Chicago State's Jensyn Stanberry scored her first collegiate goal in the loss to Western Illinois from 19 yards out… CSU Bakersfield's Alexa Orrante tallied a goal in both the 2-1 loss to UNLV and 3-1 defeat against Sacramento State recording four points on the weekend… Seattle U's Jessie Ray scored in the 4-1 loss against Santa Clara and scored twice and had an assist in the 4-0 victory over Portland State… UT Rio Grande Valley's Andreya Barrera scored the game-winning goal in the 2-0 victory over Incarnate Word.
Other defensive nominee: Kansas City's Abby Small who played all but four minutes of the two matches and forced several turnovers to help her team produce a shutout against both Missouri State and South Dakota.
TOP OF THE CHARTS
Second-time offensive player of the week Lexie Howard is leading the WAC with 15 points on the season. Not far behind her are both Seattle U's Jessie Ray and NM State's Audriana Chavez with 13. Ray also leads the WAC in goals per game and is tied with Howard with six goals. Leading in assists are Utah Valley's Hannah Bruce and NM States's Devin Hart both with four assists on the season. CSU Bakersfield's Kamari Hines has a league best of four game-winning goals.
As a team, NM State leads in points (57) and goals (20), while Seattle U tops the charts in assists (20), goals per game (2.00) and assists per game (2.50). UT Rio Grande Valley is doing the work defensively as they have the lowest number of goals allowed (6) and has the best goals against average (0.62). Chicago State has the most saves (87) and Kansas City and NM State both have the most shutouts (4).
SO CLOSE
UT Rio Grande Valley took No. 21 Texas into overtime for just the second time this season. UTRGV traveled to the home of the undefeated Texas Longhorns on Friday. They held strong while taking on 28 shots which seven of those were on goal and 12 corner kicks. It took a give and go in the 98th minute to get past the strong defense. The Vaqueros had five shots of their own with three of those on goal and had one corner kick.
READY TO GO
Grand Canyon is finally done with their four season wait and is now eligible for post season play. Since joining the WAC in 2013, Grand Canyon has consistentlyshown they can compete while never finding themselves lower thanfourth in the ranks at the end of each season. Along with this eligibility, GrandCanyon was chosen to host this upcoming WAC tournament and is eligible toplay in the NCAA tournament.
NATION'S BEST
CSU Bakersfield's Kamari Hines is tied with nine other players for most game-winning goals (4). Her first one came on the first weekend of play against Prairie View A&M in the tenth minute of the match. The second was in double overtime to seal the win over UTEP. Then against Denver she scored the tying goal to force overtime and the game-winning goal in the first seven minutes of extra time. The fourth came in the 59th minute against Grambling State.
Hines' teammate Jordan Bertram is second in the nation for number of goalie minutes played. She has played 942:24 on the pitch so far is about 20 minutes away from the leading goalkeeper who has played 962:16. Bertram has been the only net minder for CSU Bakersfield so far this season.
COMPETITION FROM 2016 NCAA TOURNAMENT
This past week Seattle U took a hard 4-1 loss against Santa Clara who extended their season last year to the quarterfinals in the NCAA Championship. In the tournament Santa Clara took a 3-0 win over Long Beach State, upset Stanford 1-0 in double overtime and beat North Carolina State 3-0 before losing to Georgetown 1-0 which ended their season.
CSU Bakersfield also took on UNLV who stretched their season last year. UNLV came out victorious in the 2-1 decision. They lost 2-0 to BYU last year in the first round of the tournament.
WAC teams will play in four more matches against teams that played in the NCAA Tournament last year.
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.