United Athletic Conference

 

Kansas City's Kelsey Mothershead and Seattle U's Ariana Romero have been named the Western Athletic Conference Women's Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week, respectively, for Aug. 20-26.

 

Mothershead, a senior forward from Smithville, Mo. (Smithville) was a strong force for the Kansas City offense. She placed four goals in the back of the net and added an assist for nine total points. Mothershead scored the equalizer in the 88th minute of play against Illinois-Chicago to send the game to overtime. She followed with the game-winning goal in the 97th minute to give Kansas City the 2-1 win. Mothershead also had a pair of goals and an assist in the Roos' win over Western Illinois.

 

Romero, a freshman goalkeeper from Hercules, Calif. (Hercules), finished the weekend with no goals allowed in 77:12 minutes of play. She came off the bench to seal a 3-0 shutout against Eastern Washington last Monday. In Sunday's match against Cal State Fullerton, Romero grabbed one save. 

 

Other offensive nominees: Grand Canyon's Jaycee Iranshad scored the game-winning goal in a win over Houston Baptist … Aileen Galicia of NM State recorded her second goal of the season against Northern Arizona and had five shot attempts against Pacific… Seattle U's Jessie Ray finished with three goals, two against Eastern Washington, and also had one assist … UT Rio Grande Valley's Sarah Bonney had two goals with one being the game winner over UTEP… Laken Flinders of Utah Valley placed one shot on goal in a 1-1 tie against UNLV.

 

Other defensive nominees: Grand Canyon's Abby Burton allowed just one goal over the weekend and made six saves … Liz Mann of Kansas City helped the defense to just one goal allowed in two games and also scored the game-winning goal against Western Illinois … NM State's Samantha Afonso scored two goals as a defender including the Aggies' lone goal against Pacific … Hannah Bruce of Utah Valley made multiple defensive stops to hold the defense together in a 1-1 tie against UNLV. 

 

Kansas City was the lone WAC school to pick up the weekend sweep. The Roos defeated UIC on 2-1 in overtime on Friday and followed with a 4-0 victory against Western Illinois Sunday. Seattle U earned a win and tie in week two of play. The Redhawks won 3-0 against two-time defending Big Sky champion Eastern Washington and tied with Cal State Fullerton 1-1 on Sunday. Grand Canyon and UT Rio Grande Valley each finished the weekend with a split. GCU opened the weekend with a 1-0 victory over Houston Baptist but fell 1-0 to Northern Arizona in a double overtime match. UTRGV lost 1-0 to Abilene Christian in overtime but bounced back to defeat UTEP 3-2 on Sunday. UTRGV's win over UTEP was their first in program history and it also snapped a four match road losing streak.

Kansas City owned the team statistic this week claiming eight top spots. They lead in shots with 63, goals with eight and points with 22. The Roos also hold the highest goals and assists per game as well as overall assists with six. California Baptist sits atop the shutouts category with two and Grand Canyon claims the most saves at 29. 

 

Individually speaking, McKenzie Cook of Grand Canyon leads in shots per game and total shots with 15 and a 3.75 game average. Kansas City's Kelsey Mothersheads owns the most goals with five and points with 11. While Jessie Ray of Seattle U claims best in points and goals per game. 

 

WAC teams will play in five 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.

 

Aug. 31 Utah Valley at San Diego – 3 p.m. PT

Sep. 2 Kansas City vs Missouri State – 1 p.m. CT, (WDN)

Sept. 13 Utah Valley at Colorado – 3:30 p.m. MT

Sep. 14 UT Rio Grande Valley at Texas – 6 p.m. CT

Sep. 16 Kansas City vs Oklahoma State, 1 p.m. CT (WDN)

 

 

The 37th Annual Women's College Cup will be held at Wakamed Soccer Park, Cary, N.C., Nov. 30 and Dec. 2.  Last year's WAC champs, Utah Valley, fell short in their 2017 first round match up against Stanford. The Wolverines were defeated 9-1 by the 2017 National Champions.

 

 

COLLEGE CUP DATES

First Round (64)

Nov. 9-11, 2018

On campus sites TBD

 

Second Round (32)

Nov. 16, 2018

On campus sites TBD

 

Third Round (16)

Nov. 18, 2017

On campus sites TBD

 

Quarterfinals (8)

Nov. 23-24, 2017

On campus sites TBD

 

Women's College Cup

Nov. 30 and Dec. 2, 2018

Wakemed Soccer Park

Cary, N.C.

 

 

The WAC Digital Network will broadcast over 60 games this season including all five games of the 2018 WAC Women's Soccer Tournament in Orem, Utah.