NEWS FROM THE NEST: Maria named national player of week; fall surge continues
In the classic film noir classic “Laura,” the heroine is a n elusive lady that makes an haunting impact on everyone she encounters.
An Oklahoma Wesleyan University women’s soccer phantom in corporeal presence slicing past defenders to deposit goals in the net like quarters in a vending machine.
Trying to contain her is like trying to grab a fistful of mist and bottling it up.
She is — by far — the most explosive offensive force in nation.
Through just 13 matches, Maria has popped in 36 goals and handed out 12 assists — which adds up to 84 soccer points. (Two points per goal, one per assist.)
She leads all women’s soccer scorers in the NAIA by margins of 13 goals and 31 points. Maria is well on her way to a rare 100-point season.
But, most importantly, Maria has energized the Lady Eagles to a 13-0-0 record (8-0-0 in conference) and an historic No. 6 ranking in the country.
And the rest of the nation is paying attention. This week, the NAIA named Maria the NAIA Women’s Soccer Offensive Player of the Week for the nation — the third time she’s garnered that award since latter-September.
A couple of other facts — Maria has scored in 10 of 13 matches and she current owns a string of six-straight matches with hat-trick (three-or-more goals).
Following are other recent OKWU sports highlights.
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MEN’S SOCCER
Stefan Cvetanovic ripped the nets with three goals to help power the OKWU Eagles to a 6-4 win against Friends (Kan.) in men’s soccer action Wednesday.
Tallying one goal each were Uros Aleksijevic, Zlatan Ramic and Brennon Slinger.
Producing assists were Matheus Ferreira (two), Victor Crispim, Pol Mur, Mateja Stojanovic and Uros Rosic.
Llija Catic played the distance in goal and made two saves.
OKWU (8-4-1) — which is coached by Jamie Peterson — notched its fifth-straight win and improved to 7-1-0 in the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference.
In related news, the Eagles also received a tide of good news Wednesday by being ranked No. 20 in his week’s NAIA Men’s Soccer Coaches Top 25 poll — one spot up from last week’s ranking.
The Eagles next take on Southwestern (Kan.) this weekend.
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VOLLEYBALL
Finally, the Lady Eagles received some national love.
Despite owning the nation’s best record (28-1-0), voters have completely ignored the Lady Eagles in the NAIA national volleyball poll.
Until this week.
On Wednesday, the Lady Eagles received three votes — not exactly a smashing tsunami but at least a nod to the rising program. OKWU and Ottawa (Kan.) (94 votes) were the only two KCAC teams to harvest votes. They were both listed in the category of “Others Receiving Votes,” just one step below cracking the Top 25.
Also on Wednesday, the Lady Eagles collected another conference win, sweeping Kansas Wesleyan, 25-13, 33-31, 25-21.
Daisy Scott led a balanced hitting attack. She hammered 12 kills, followed by Makaila Keith with 11, Lauren McKinney with 11 and Chiara Vittoni with 5.
Addie Mathias and Sydney Collins contributed 17 and 15 assists, respectively. Mathias also launched four aces. Andjela Micunovic reaped 23 digs, followed by Valeria Perez (16) and Collins (7).
Tracie Gillette coaches the Lady Eagles.
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WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
The KCAC released on Wednesday is 2022-23 KCAC Women’s Basketball Preseason Team.
OKWU sophomore Zariah Tillman was named to the team. At the end of last season, she received a spot on the KCAC Women’s Basketball Third-Team.
Last year, Tillman (5-8) led the Lady Eagles in scoring (12.1 ppg) and rebounding (5.4 rpg).
She also made 2.3 steals per game and handed out an assist per game.
Tillman scored in double figures in 12 of the final 14 games and 15 of the final 18 games.
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WOMEN’S SOCCER
OKWU blanked Friends (Kan.), 4-0, on Wednesday to improve to 13-0-overall and 8-0-0 in the KCAC.
Friends is one of the Lady Eagles’ biggest challengers for the conference title at 8-3-1, 5-1-1.
Maria scored a hat-trick (three goals) to lead OKWU. Joelle Meister fired in the team’s other score.
Naroa Domenech assisted on two of Maria’s goal. Summer Miles and Juliana Viera each tallied one assist.
OKWU goalie Nerea Perez Mora made two saves to preserve the shutout.
Ivan Ristic coaches the Lady Eagles, who are scheduled to be at home at 5:30 p.m. Saturday to face Southwestern (Kan.).
This article originally appeared on Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise: OKWU sports roundup: Soccer player receives national honor
