Cullowhee, N.C. – The top statistical goalkeeper in the Southern Conference, Western Carolina's Leanne Trudel was today named the SoCon Defensive Player of the Week after tending the twine for the Catamounts in a scoreless, undefeated week, pacing WCU to two more shutout victories to give the netminder seven in 2024.
Trudel was joined by Wofford's Megan Childress, who was named the SoCon's Offensive Player of the Week by the league office. She is the fourth Catamount to earn a weekly honor this season, but collects the fifth honor of the 2024 campaign, joining Kirsten Hahn (Week 1 Offense), Milla Syska (Week 3 and Week 5 Offense), and Becca Campbell (Week 4 Defense).
This year's five Player of the Week awards represent the second-most for the Catamounts in a single season, trailing only the six total honors earned by the 2023 SoCon championship team. WCU now has a combined 30 SoCon Player of the Week honors all-time.
Trudel posted her conference-leading sixth and seventh clean sheets of the season as the Catamounts opened SoCon play with a pair of shutout victories. WCU blanked the Samford Bulldogs 2-0 in a rematch of last year's conference championship match and edged the Mercer Bears 1-0 to complete the conference-opening weekend.
A junior from Longueuil, Quebec, Trudel leads the SoCon in overall save percentage (84.1%) among players who have started all their team's matches and is the only goalkeeper to play more than 60 minutes this season, posting an 0.64 goals against average. Additionally, Trudel's league-leading total of seven clean sheets is three more than Mercer's Lindsay Bell's second-place total of four. The six solo shutouts Trudel has accrued are tied for the fifth most in the NCAA this season.
Trudel denied seven would-be goals to keep the Catamounts clean on the scoresheet. She hasn't conceded a goal to a conference foe since last year's regular-season finale at ETSU, posting five shutouts against SoCon competition in that span.
Collecting the second weekly honor of her career, Trudel joins fellow goalkeeper Caitlin Williams (4x), Naya Marcil (4x), Becca Campbell (3x), Shannon Fowkes (2x), and Milla Syska (2x) as the only Catamounts to collect two or more weekly conference honors during their careers in Purple and Gold.
Leanne Trudel and the Catamounts have a slight reprieve before heading to Greenville, S.C. to face the Furman Paladins under the Friday night lights. The battle between the current top two teams in the SoCon standings is set for 7 p.m.
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