Graham Hays, ESPN.com 9y

espnW Soccer Player Of The Week: Notre Dame's Katie Naughton

Women's College Basketball Soccer

Forget five-star prices and guest reviews. You want clean sheets on the road? Go where Notre Dame goes.

Unable to hold a two-goal lead at home against North Carolina a week earlier, the Fighting Irish righted themselves with a pair of shutout wins away from home this past week, extending their streak of road shutouts to four. The clean sheet (a term not, in fact, related to bedding) was most necessary in a 1-0 win at Wake Forest on Sunday, but it was most impressive in Thursday's 2-0 win at Virginia Tech. Notre Dame not only handed the second-ranked Hokies their first loss of the season but also blanked what remains the nation's highest-scoring offense in a major conference.

For her work through all 180 minutes of scoreless soccer vs. the Hokies and Demon Deacons, Notre Dame junior defender Katie Naughton is espnW's national player of the week.

Nothing is as communal an effort in soccer as a defensive performance, which makes it difficult to single out any individual as its epicenter. With ample reason, the ACC named Notre Dame goalkeeper Kaela Little as its player of the week after the sophomore made nine saves in the shutouts, highlighted by a point-blank reaction save in the closing minutes against Virginia Tech. Defenders Sabrina Flores, Sammy Scofield and Brittany Von Rueden similarly played their parts. But Naughton, a captain at Notre Dame and starter for the United States in this past summer's Under-20 World Cup, gets the nod here for contributions best measured by the eye.

Consider one moment from the first half of what was still a scoreless game against the Hokies.

A Notre Dame giveaway in its own half left Hokies standout striker Murielle Tiernan with a lot of unattended grass between her and the goal. A pass put the ball at Tiernan's feet about 25 yards from goal, but Naughton wasn't caught flat-footed by the turnover in front of her. Running on Tiernan's right shoulder, she steered the attacking player all the way across the 6-yard box and forced Tiernan to cut back rather than attempt a shot. Even then, as Tiernan shifted the ball back to her right foot, Naughton stayed on her feet and closed quickly enough to deflect the ensuing shot.

The deflection eventually fell to the feet of another Virginia Tech player, whose shot across the face of goal, possibly tipped by Little, was cleared off the line by Von Rueden.

The ball that Von Rueden cleared may have been Virginia Tech's best chance, certainly its best chance until it was already behind by two goals, but what saved the day was Naughton's work beforehand to deny Tiernan an even better chance.

That was one sequence out of hundreds in two games, but whether it was turning potential good looks for Tiernan and Shannon Mayrose into difficult looks, or recovering in time to do the same against Wake Forest's Riley Ridgik, Notre Dame's best defender spent all weekend making necessary plays and making sure others never materialized.

Also considered this week:

Dagny Brynjarsdottir, MF, Florida State
Kadeisha Buchanan, D, West Virginia
Mackenzie Dowd, D, Northeastern
Kaela Little, GK, Notre Dame
Chandler Morris, GK, Arizona State

^ Back to Top ^