Photo by WKU Athletics
Freshman midfielder Ambere Barnett has been named the C-USA Offensive Player of the Week as announced by the conference office on Monday afternoon. The honor is the first of Barnett’s career and WKU’s first weekly conference award of the 2018 season.
Barnett, a native of Rockport, Ind., spearheaded the WKU attack in victories over FIU and UTEP this weekend, scoring a pair of goals and assisting on four others; in total, Barnett either scored or assisted on six of WKU’s eight goals across the two contests, including both match-winners that were scored by Sarah Gorham.
In Friday’s 4-0 shutout of FIU, Barnett assisted on WKU’s first and third goals to push the Lady Toppers to their first C-USA victory of the season. The freshman also shifted up into a center forward role compared to her normal spot in the midfield, allowing her to serve as the focal point of the offensive attack. Barnett’s move proved to be a revelation for Ashley Leonard as well, who netted WKU’s first hat trick since 2010 in the victory.
On Sunday afternoon, Barnett took full control of the offense, having a hand in each of WKU’s four goals in the thrilling 4-3 victory. She put the Lady Toppers on the board just over five minutes into the match, and later made it 3-0 in WKU’s favor on a direct strike off a free kick at the 33:52 mark.
The 2017 Miss Kentucky Soccer honoree is WKU’s first C-USA Offensive Player of the Week since Chandler Backes picked up the accolades on Sept. 6, 2016, and is the Lady Toppers’ 13th C-USA Player of the Week award winner since joining the conference prior to the 2014 campaign. Of WKU’s 31 all-time conference player of the week awards, 11 have come since the beginning of the 2016 season.
For the season, Barnett leads WKU in goals (five), assists (five) and total points (15) through 13 matches, and she is only the second Lady Topper in program history to have a pair of matches with five or more points in a single season, joining Jenna Silverberg in 2003.
Following its weekend sweep of FIU and UTEP, WKU has secured six points in the race for the C-USA Tournament and will continue its homestand with two matches next weekend. First, the Lady Toppers will battle North Texas on Friday evening at 6 p.m., then WKU will welcome Rice to the Soccer Complex next Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m.
Courtesy of WKU Athletics
