Murphy, Sobierajski, and Gill Win Wilson Women's Soccer Weekly Accolades
MAAC Sports
Wilson Offensive Player of the Week
Erica Murphy, Monmouth
Jr., F, 5-5, Millstone Township, NJ/Pennington Prep
Murphy led the Hawks offensively to a 2-0 week and Monmouth’s third straight MAAC Regular Season Championship with five points on two goals and an assist. Murphy, who leads the conference with 15 goals (highest single-season goal total for the Hawks since Kristen McDermott scored 22 goals in 1998), assisted on junior Rachael Ivanicki’s game-winner in a 1-0 victory over Manhattan on Wednesday night and then added a pair of goals for the Hawks in the regular season title clinching 2-0 victory at Niagara on Sunday. Murphy, who has scored two goals in a game five times this season, leads the Hawks with 33 points on 15 goals and three assists. She attempted seven shots on the week, with five of them on frame. She now ranks second on the team with four game-winning goals.
Wilson Defensive Player of the Week
Tara Sobierajski, Siena
Jr., B, 5-8, Rockaway, NJ/Morris Catholic
Sobierajski scored the decisive goal and anchored a Siena defense which stymied a potent Marist offense in the Saints’ lone match last week, a key 1-0 victory over the rival Red Foxes. The center back quarterbacked a Siena defense which unbelievably held the MAAC contenders Marist - which entered played with a 5-2 conference mark - without a shot over the first 67 minutes of action. The Red Foxes had entered play averaging 1.5 goals per game while ranking third in the MAAC averaging 15.4 shots per contest. Thanks in large part to their defensive leader Sobierajski, the Saints held their opponent to six shots or fewer for the sixth time this year, while also recording the team’s seventh shutout to mark the program’s most in seven years. Neither of Marist’s top-two scorers - Erica Crosier or Kristen Reilly - were able to attempt a shot in the match either. One of the MAAC’s premier two-way center backs and set piece takers, Sobierajski also scored the game-winning goal in leading Siena to a pivotal win as it contends for a MAAC Tournament berth. On a corner kick from the right, she bent in a perfect corner which curled its way untouched inside the near right post. It marked the fourth career game-winning goal for the junior back who already has 27 career points to her name.
Wilson Rookie of the Week
Nadya Gill, Quinnipiac
Fr., F, 5-2, Toronto, Ontario/Toronto Prep
Nadya Gill was the hat trick hero for the Bobcats on Saturday as her three-goal effort proved instrumental in the Bobcats’ 4-3 double overtime victory at Iona. Gill’s first career hat trick, also the first for a Bobcat since 2011 and the first for a QU freshman since 2008, lifted Quinnipiac to a crucial three points which moved the Bobcats into a tie for sixth place in the MAAC standings. Gill’s game-defining play came in the second overtime frame as her rocket shot into the opposite corner sealed the Bobcat victory in what is Gill’s fifth game-winning goal of 2015 and third in overtime alone. She rounded out her stat sheet with a season-high nine shots and five shots-on-goal in the three-goal effort against the Gaels. Gill was also highly involved in a 1-1 draw at Fairfield on Wednesday as she tallied a game-high five shots and four shots-on-goal as the Bobcats earned a road point in the MAAC.