DENVER- Seattle U's Jessie Ray and Mackenzie Curry have been named the Western Athletic Conference Women's Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week, respectively, for Sept. 18-24.
Ray, a sophomore forward from Portland, Ore. (Grant High School) found the back of the net off of a Portland State goal kick which was redirected by Kelsey Vogel over the backline on top of the 18-yard box. Ray turned with the ball at her feet and hammered the shot to gain a 1-0 lead in the 18th minute of the match. Portland State found the equalizer in the 62nd minute in the double overtime tie. Adding this goal to her stats, she now leads the WAC with seven goals on the season and ranks 25th nationally in total goals. This is the second time this season Ray has been named WAC Offensive Player of the Week.
Curry, sophomore goalkeeper from Irvine, Calif. (Northwood High School) was not called upon much in the first 89 minutes of regulation by only seeing one shot on goal but forced overtime with two key saves in the last minute against Portland State. She only saw one more shot on goal during the first overtime period. Curry also had seven saves in the double overtime 2-1 loss against Gonzaga. She competed in all 211:23 that her team participated in this past weekend.
Other offensive nominees: Chicago State's Mariela Alba scored her second goal of the season in the 50th minute against Indiana State… CSU Bakersfield's Sophie Freeman tallied her first goal of the season and the only goal for CSUB for the weekend in the 78th minute with her head off of a free kick against UC Riverside… UT Rio Grande Valley's Andreya Barrera found the back of the net to give her team a 1-0 lead in the 14th minute against Oral Roberts but it did not seem to be enough to pull off the win.
Other defensive nominees: Chicago State's Audra Wisehart saw a lot of action against Butler as she made a WAC-high 12 saves in the match and adding those saves puts her as WAC leader in saves (56) and eighth in the nation in saves per game (8.00)… CSU Bakersfield's Jordan Bertram had 12 saves on the weekend which eight of them were to stop UC Riverside which puts her at second in the WAC with total saves (52).