BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Mississippi Valley State University women’s soccer program has been represented as SWAC Players of the Week for the first time in three years as Rahael Aka-Ety and McKenzie McCarthy earned SWAC Defender and Goalkeeper of the Week, respectively.
Prior to the announcement from the conference office Tuesday afternoon, the last Devilette to be acknowledged as a SWAC Player of the Week was Beatriz Kretteis on September 9, 2019, when she won Offensive Player of the Week.
SWAC Defender and Goalkeeper of the Week had not been claimed by a Valley State soccer student-athlete since the previous year as defender Stephany Adomako (September 10, 2018) and keeper Sydney Newport (September 17, 2018) went back-to-back.
Aka-Ety, a junior from Bolgatanga, Ghana, was recognized not for her gaudy stat lines but for her aggressiveness on the pitch and dirty work on the backline, constantly denying both MTSU and ULM of quality goalscoring opportunities over two complete-game efforts. Her biggest contributions came in the net as, without her, Louisiana-Monroe would have put an extra two goals on the board, but she made two outstanding sliding kick-saves on difficult goalie situations. She also contributed one of the team’s four shot attempts against the Warhawks.
McCarthy, a senior from Olive Branch, Mississippi, continued to add to her program record save total, collecting 29 saves for an average of 14.5 per match while saving 80.6% of the shots that were on-target. The six-footer spent the full 180 minutes between the pipes last week, being bombarded with a barrage of 78 shots including 38 on-goal.
McCarthy, Aka-Ety and the rest of the women’s soccer team do not play again until Friday, September 16 when North Dakota visits Itta Bena for a 6 p.m. start.
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