MOREHEAD | Bolstered by a three-goal effort in Sunday's 5-1 home win over Eastern Illinois, sophomore forward
Hedda Ornberg was unanimously chosen as the Ohio Valley Conference Offensive Player of the Week. The conference announced the award Tuesday afternoon after a vote by the league's soccer communication contacts from its 10 member schools.
Ornberg joins graduate student defender
Anna Lohrer, who was twice recognized as the Defensive Player of the Week for the periods ending on August 27 and September 3, and freshman
Claire Cress, who was named the Goalkeeper of the Week on September 3, as this season's previous honorees.
"Hedda had a great weekend in front of goal. We saw the very best of her and she's hitting form at the right time," Morehead State coach Paul Cox said. "Every time she got the ball, we knew something was going to happen (and) she did a great job of bringing others into the attack."
A 5-foot-10 native of Gothenburg, Sweden, Ornberg recorded the sixth hat trick in program history in the EIU contest, which helped the Eagles snap a six-game winless streak against the Panthers. It was the team's first hat trick since Jade Flory accomplished the feat on Aug. 29, 2014.
In the Eastern Illinois game, Ornberg took five shots and scored on all three that were on goal. In MSU's other match of the week, Thursday's 1-1 home tie against Radford, she had two shots, both of which were on frame.
Bolstered by her recent performance, Ornberg now leads the team in goals (four) and game-winning goals (two), is tied for first in points (eight), and sits second in both shots (16) and shots on goal (11). In just 23 career outings, she is already halfway to a spot on the career top-10 goals' list at MSU. She is the Eagles' active career leader in goals (eight), points (19) and shots (30).
"(It) feels good to win Offensive Player of the Week," Ornberg said. "I'm very proud of the team and our way to start the conference. We came out with great energy and created a lot of chances which made it possible for me to score a hat trick. I'm very excited about the upcoming games."
The Eagles have collected 61 total OVC Player of Week honors since the program's inception in 1998. It is the first one for Ornberg. MSU's last OVC Offensive Player of the Week was on October 24, 2023, and won by recent graduate
Kate Larbes.
With half the season still to go, the team might reach or surpass its high of seven weekly award winners achieved in both 2009 and 2010. MSU had four players recognized last season.
Morehead State (4-3-3/1-0-0) just completed its longest home stand of the season (two games). In the Eastern Illinois game, MSU notched its highest goal tally since a 5-2 victory on Aug. 20, 2023, against Detroit Mercy, and the most at home since Oct. 26, 2014, when it beat visiting EIU 5-0. Its 14 points on the day tied the seventh-best mark in school history, while the five goals tied for the fifth most. It also recorded a season high in shots with 24 (bettering the previous mark by four).
The EIU victory was the team's first since August 29, a stretch of 24 days and five games. It was the first win over the Panthers since Oct. 1, 2017, the first over Eastern Illinois in Morehead since Oct. 9, 2016, and the first ever when EIU was the Eagles' OVC-opening opponent. In the latter category, the Blue and Gold now sit at 1-5-1. It also was the team's first victory when the OVC opener came at home since 2010.
Little Rock collected the league's other two awards. Sophomore midfielder Candice Kilderry was the Defensive Player of the Week and junior Peyton Urban was the Goalkeeper of the Week. MSU's nominees in those two categories were freshmen
Marinna Campos and
Lilly Bailey, respectively.
Morehead State currently owns a 2-1-1 home record this fall and has unbeaten streaks of three games overall and two in Morehead.
This week, the Eagles play at Western Illinois on Thursday at 4 p.m. ET and then host Little Rock on Sunday at noon.
