Texas Tech soccer’s Jade King and Rebekah O’Brien were named Big 12 Offensive & Defensive Players of the Week, respectively, on Tuesday after their performance on Sunday against Iowa State.
King is the first freshman to win the award this season and the first Red Raider freshman since Janine Beckie in 2012. O’Brien’s accolade marks the first defensive honor for Tech since Lauren Watson in 2014. That year is also the last time the Red Raiders have claimed both the offensive and defensive awards. King & O’Brien join Jordie Harr as the three Tech honorees this season.
Not only was King the only Big 12 student-athlete to have a multi-goal performance in a single-match last weekend, she was also the only one to net multiple goals over the entire weekend of competition.
King tallied her team-leading fourth & fifth goals in Sunday’s 3-0 rout of the Cyclones. In the 15thminute, Cassie Conarty launched the ball down the field to find a streaking King, who blew past a couple of Cyclones to control the ball. Moving closer to the goal, King chipped it across her defender and lifted a shot top-shelf for the first goal of the day.
Her second came 11 minutes later after some back-and-forth play between Jordie Harr & Meagan McCullough provided Harr an opening for a cross at the far corner of the box. Harr’s pass found King in front of the net, who finished it off by popping it to the left-end of the net to put Tech up, 2-0.
King finished the day with five shots, three on goal, which continued her stronghold on the Big 12 lead in shots (55) and shots per game (4.58), the latter also ranks 14th in the NCAA. She also ranks second in the conference in goals with five, just one off the leader.
O’Brien was an instrumental part in Tech’s fifth shutout of the year on Sunday. The Red Raiders held the Cyclones to just two shots in the first half of play, including a 34-minute stretch with no shots allowed. O’Brien logged all 90 minutes of the match, making it the eighth time in 12 contests she’s played the entire game.
She also posted the third goal of the day, as she sent a laser to the upper 90 of the left-side of the net off a free kick from outside the box. The tally was her third of the year and helped put away the Cyclones, 3-0.
The Red Raiders are off this week, but return to action next week to take on Oklahoma State on Friday, Oct. 7, at 6 p.m. on FSN, followed by Baylor on Sunday, Oct. 9, at 1 p.m., both at the John Walker Soccer Complex.
(Courtesy: Texas Tech Media Relations Department)