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Seattle U's Ray and Grand Canyon's Fraasch Named Players of the Week
Seattle U's Jessie Ray and Grand Canyon's Blakely Fraasch have been named the Western Athletic Conference Women's Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week, respectively, for Aug. 28-Sep. 3.
Ray, a sophomore forward from Portland, Ore. (Grant High School), slipped one past Hawaii's goalkeeper to seal the 2-0 victory Monday night. She tallied five shots with two on goal in the 75 minutes of action she saw. Ray took home the Outrigger Classic Most Valuable Player honor after she had a major role in the Redhawks' winning the overall tournament.
Fraasch, a senior goalkeeper from Prior Lake, Minn. (Prior Lake High School), produced two shutouts on the weekend. Nevada had the first shot on trying to get one past Fraasch but deemed unsuccessful when she made six saves on the match. Detroit Mercy was next but also had no such luck with testing her only three times. She had a total of nine saves on the weekend while facing 15 shots. She left the weekend with a 1.00 save percentage in her 180 minutes on the pitch.
Other offensive nominees: CSU Bakersfield's Kamari Hines scored both the tying and the game-winner in the overtime victory against Denver… Grand Canyon's Milla Benedetti scored to secure the victory over Nevada as well as the game-winner against Detroit Mercy… Utah Valley's Libby Weber scored the game-winner in the 2-1 victory over Oral Roberts making that her first goal of the season.
Other defensive nominees: Seattle U's Stephanie Spiekerman led the defense to shutout Hawaii while also producing an assist in the 2-0 victory… UTRGV's Mackenzie McLeod was named to the all-tournament team after a career high 90 minutes against Lamar… Utah Valley's Tara Furlong was key in making several defensive stops in both the 2-1 loss against Tulsa and the 2-1 victory over Oral Roberts.
MANTHEI'S RECORD BREAKING PERFORMANCE
A total of four goals for the freshman forward was enough to tally two 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.
TOUGH COMPETITION
On Monday, Seattle U will host Santa Clara who made it to the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament last year before being knocked out by Georgetown in a 1-0 game. Last year Santa Clara upset number one seed Stanford in double overtime in the second round of the tournament. They received two votes on the United Soccer Coaches Top 25 poll this week and is ranked seventh in the West Regional Poll.
TOP PLAY NOMINEE
CSU Bakersfield's game-winning goal is one of this week's #WACtopPlay nominees. CSU Bakersfield found themselves quickly behind a goal in the first three minutes of the match but Kamari Hines found the equalizer off of a corner kick in the 53rd minute. The two teams could not find the back of the net again in regulation. The Top Play nominee came off the chest of Hines when Denver's defender popped it up with her foot from a cross by Aminah Settles. The goal occurred in the 97th minute to hand Denver their first loss of the season.
The other nominees this week are NM State's volleyball “Ace is the Placeâ€, Air Force Academy's men's soccer “Parent's Weekendâ€, and Utah Valley's volleyball “Off the Pipe.†Voting occurs on Twitter, @WACsports, and the poll ends 9 a.m. MT.
LAST WEEK'S TOP PLAY WINNER
Announced August 30th, #WACtopPlay winner from last week went to Grand Canyon's women's soccer “What a Finish†when the Lopes defeated Weber in overtime. Normally Madison Cox plays defense but head coach Derek Leader switched things up and put her up top. She not only scored the equalizer with less than two minutes remaining in regulation but the game winner six minutes later in overtime to thrill the large home crowd.
All #WACtopPlay voting occurs on Twitter so make sure you follow @WACsports to cast your vote for your favorite Top Play. Also, if you see one that should be nominated, use the hashtag #WACtopPlay.
COMPETITION FROM 2016 NCAA TOURNAMENT
This past weekend two WAC teams faced opponents who extended their season last year in the NCAA Tournament. On Friday Utah Valley was defeated by UNLV 2-1 in double overtime and on Sunday Kansas City was victorious over South Dakota State 1-0.
WAC teams will play in seven more matches against teams that played in the NCAA Tournament last year. Two matches hosted by WAC schools will be available to stream on the WAC Digital Network at www.wacsports.com/watch.
Sept. 8 UT Rio Grande Valley at Houston Baptist, 7 p.m. CT
Sept. 11 Santa Clara at Seattle U, 3 p.m. PT (WDN)
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.