KANSAS CITY, Mo. — On the heels of a Peach Belt Conference (PBC) weekly award, UNC Pembroke freshman goalkeeper Gina Ryan has been named the Division II Women’s College Player of the Week, the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) announced Tuesday afternoon.
Ryan becomes just the second Brave to win the award in the 16-year history of the program. Former Black & Gold goalkeeper Janae Aiken earned the recognition in 2014.
“Even though I’ve always focused on team accomplishments before individual honors, I am still extremely excited for players when they receive accolades such as this,” head coach Lars Andersson said. “Gina follows in a long line of impressive UNCP goalkeepers and she is already joined that elite company. I couldn’t be more excited for her.”
Ryan, a native of Cape Carteret, North Carolina, is settling in as the UNCP keeper, playing all 270 minutes in net this week. She notched shutouts number two, three and four of her collegiate career, including a clean sheet against No. 9 Columbus State. It was the first conference loss for the Cougars in their past 33 league contests.
“Gina is very talented, cerebral and coachable,” Andersson said. “She has the heart of a lion, but also has a calm about her that makes her the ideal goalkeeper.”
Ryan was berated with shots in the trio of contests, making 19 saves to extend her scoreless streak to 379 minutes. She has surrendered just goal in 495 minutes in net this season and her 0.18 goals against average and .962 save percentage are tops in the conference. When the last NCAA stats update was released on Sept. 22, Ryan was second in the nation in save percentage and sixth in goals against average.
“I want to give a lot of credit to my assistant, Brittany Padilla,” Andersson said. “She was instrumental in recruiting Gina and has done a great job with our goalkeeper training.”
Andersson knows Ryan has the potential to be a special player in net for the Braves.
“I think we are only scratching the surface with Gina,” he said. “I look forward to what the future holds because we are talking about a player who has only played a handful of games in her collegiate career.”
Ryan and the Braves are in action Wednesday at Georgia College. Kickoff is scheduled for 8 p.m. at Bobcat Field in Milledgeville. Live video and stats links are available at uncpbraves.com.
O’Brien named ECAC Offensive Player Of The Week
DANBURY, Conn. — An electrifying performance that saw him put up Playstation numbers in a convincing 49-35 victory over visiting North Greenville on Saturday evening has earned quarterback Patrick O’Brien Offensive Player of the Week recognition from the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC).
O’Brien, a Mooresville product, was responsible for six touchdowns (four passing, two rushing) as the Braves collected their seventh-straight home victory with the triumph over the Crusaders. The junior finished the night with 330 yards on 34-of-39 passing with no interceptions. He completed 20 of his first 21 passing attempts in the outing as well.
The performance completely leveled UNCP’s program record for completion percentage. The four passing touchdowns and two rushing scores matched career highs for the second-year starter as well.
The ECAC is the largest conference in the United States, with 312 member schools in NCAA Divisions I, II and III, ranging in location from Maine to South Carolina. UNCP’s wrestling team competes as a member of the ECAC, which allows its other sports without a conference affiliation to enjoy membership perks as well, including all-conference and conference weekly award recognition.
UNCP’s football team remains unaffiliated with a conference, but will begin a four-year scheduling alliance with the South Atlantic Conference (SAC) beginning next year.
Football busts back into AFCA top 25 poll
WACO, Texas — The UNC Pembroke football team found itself back in familiar territory on Monday afternoon when the Braves checked back into the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Top 25 for the first time since the 2014 preaseason.
UNCP (4-0) is No. 21 in the latest edition of the rankings and is one of five NCAA Super Region 2 teams included in the poll. West Georgia (4-0) is the highest-ranked region team at No. 3, while Tuskegee (4-0) is 11th, Florida Tech (4-0) is 16th and North Alabama (2-1) is 18th. The Braves, Wolves, Tigers and Lions are among 22 unbeaten teams in NCAA Division II.
The Braves are perfect through four games for the first time since the 2013 campaign that saw them advance all the way through to the second round of the NCAA Division II Playoffs. UNCP also won its seventh-straight home game with a convincing 49-35 victory over North Greenville on Saturday evening at Grace P. Johnson Stadium.
The Brabves will open up a two-game road trip on Saturday when it makes the long trek to central Alabama to battle Tuskegee in a 2 p.m. ET contest at Abbott Memorial Stadium.
