The Mountain West Conference announced yesterday that Sophomore Goalkeeper Hannah Turpen has been awarded the Defensive Player of the Week Award. Turpen led the Utes to a shutout against UNLV this past weekend and had several important saves against SDSU on Saturday. Turpen has already made 48 saves this year, bringing her career total to 62. Hannah is tied for second place for her goals against average among all goalkeepers in the conference.
Here's what Coach Rich Manning had to say about Turpen, "Hannah showed a lot of mental toughness and character last weekend,” said Utah head coach Rich Manning. “For a lot of the UNLV game she didn’t have much to do, but when they forced her into decisions and plays toward the end, she handled it well. Saturday Hannah was put in a tough environment at SDSU and faced a lot of shots and made a lot of good plays, including a game-saving stop right at the end of overtime. The whole team really stepped up the defense last weekend with a renewed commitment to keeping the ball out of our net.”
Hannah told us, "It definitely feels good to receive this honor but it really should be a team award,” said Turpen. “The whole defense played great in both games. I think we have gotten a lot of our confidence and swagger back. Even though we lost at BYU we walked away knowing that we played well. Then getting two good results on the road this weekend was huge for our confidence. Not just for the defense, before the whole team. It’s a good time to have it back, this could be an important week for us.”
Congratulations Hannah!
Posts
