MOREHEAD -- The honors keep rolling in for the record-setting Morehead State (3-1-1) soccer team.
The Ohio Valley Conference announced its Player of the Week awards Tuesday afternoon after a vote by the league's soccer communication contacts from its 10 member schools.
The more you win, the more awards you receive, and in its only game of the week, MSU defeated Bellarmine 1-0 on the road on Thursday.
So, after three weeks of voting, the Eagles can add two more selections to the OVC list with the naming of graduate student defender
Anna Lohrer and freshman goalkeeper
Claire Cress, which makes three winners for the Eagles so far this season. The rest of the conference has combined to have six selections.
Lohrer was named the Defensive Player of the Week for the second consecutive week, while Cress earned Goalkeeper of the Week honors for the first time in her career. The Eagles' last Goalkeeper of the Week was
Erin Gibbs on October 4, 2022.
It was the third such honor for Lohrer, who is the first in MSU soccer history to be selected for Defensive Player of the Week three times in her career. She surpasses Stephanie Gildehaus (2008-11), who was named twice.
"(It was) another solid performance from Anna. Her leadership and aerial ability (are) so evident in every game we play. I want to congratulate her for being the first defender in program history to win this award three times," head coach Paul Cox said. "Claire is growing in confidence every game and has done really well to keep clean sheets in the last two games. She's very deserving of this award."
The Eagles' defense continues to be the team's strength. Through the Bellarmine game, the squad has continued a streak of holding their opponents scoreless for nearly 266 consecutive minutes. Morehead State's foes have recorded 67 shots, 20 of which have been on goal, and have taken 22 corner kicks, but just converted 0.60 percent of their scoring chances. The four goals it has allowed are the fewest through five games since 2005.
A Cincinnati native and St. Ursula Academy graduate, Lohrer has played every minute of every game this season (460) and on Thursday helped hold reigning Atlantic Sun Player of the Week Emma Nicholson, to just three shots.
"I'm honored to have won this award again this season. My teammates have also all played a part in earning the recent shutouts," Lohrer said. "The whole reason I wanted to come back for my fifth year was to lead this team to another OVC Championship and that remains the goal. We still have a lot of soccer left to play this season and it's important that that remains the focus."
It was the first award for Cress, who has started four games in net and has allowed just three goals on 64 shots. She has also made 14 saves, is the keeper of record in all five contests, has an 0.62 goals against average and an .824 save percentage to go with two shutouts.
The Berea resident and Madison Southern High School graduate's season gaa is the best for a freshman in school history.
"I am honored to win this award. But this doesn't just reflect on me, it reflects on the whole team for keeping two shutouts," Cress said. "There are 11 people on the field, and I couldn't have done this without every one of them."
Against Bellarmine, the Knights took 16 shots, but just three on goal, while also recording four corner kicks. For the night, they held the advantage in both shots and corners. They had possession of the ball for 54 percent of the night and were in the Eagles' defensive zone for 52 percent of the contest but did not score. Cress was forced to make three saves.
The players admit that at times the quality of play against BU was not very good, but they realize to have a successful season, you must win even when you struggle.
"I thought the first half was good. We broke lines through the field and had lots of scoring opportunities. My defensive line was strong and protected the goal," Cress said. "The second half was a little rougher, but we will keep working to keep seeing results in the future."
It was the kind of victory that will prevent the squad from becoming complacent.
"It wasn't our best performance but being able to still come away with a win even when we didn't do our best is a really positive thing," Lohrer said. "We've focused a lot on corrections this week at practice and I'm excited for our games this week."
Last September 19th, Lohrer was the co-Defensive Player of the Week, while teammate
Colleen Swift was the Offensive Player of the Week. It was the last time the Eagles had two Player of the Week selections in the same week. MSU had four total honorees in 2003 and five in 2022. The Eagles have had 60 OVC Players of the Week in their history and the most in any one season was seven, which occurred in both 2009 and 2010.
The OVC Offensive Player of the Week is Eastern Illinois' sophomore forward Alex Tetteh. Morehead State nominated sophomore forward
Hedda Ornberg for the award.
The Eagles are in the middle of the best start to a campaign in 10 years. They just completed their most successful August since going 2-0-2 in 2014 and set a new school record for games won in that month at three. They currently sport a three-game winning streak and with the Bellarmine victory have now gone 5-2-1 in their last eight road outings. The win over BU also marked the program's first win in the city of Louisville in six tries.
Morehead State travels to face Wright State on Thursday at 7 p.m. then returns home to host Northern Kentucky on Sunday at 1 p.m.
