Charlotte’s Emma Wakeman Named Conference Goalkeeper Of The Week — Again
For the second consecutive week, Charlotte Women’s Soccer goalkeeper Emma Wakeman was named the American Athletic Conference Goalkeeper of the Week, the league announced Monday afternoon (Oct. 21).
Additionally, teammates Macey Bader and Sydney Smith picked up honorable mention nods from the AAC for their performances in Sunday’s win at Tulsa.
Wakeman was called upon eight times in the match against the Golden Hurricane and made all eight stops for her sixth clean sheet of the season and third in a row. The eight saves are the most she’s made in a single match all season and are the second-most in her career behind a 12-save performance against Memphis in last year’s American Athletic Conference tournament. Wakeman had eight total saves across two clean sheets a week ago to take home her first Goalkeeper of the Week award this season and has not allowed a goal in over 305 consecutive minutes. She now has 16 career clean sheets and 174 saves, putting her fifth and seventh, respectively, on Charlotte’s career leaderboards.
Bader and Smith had the two goals for the 49ers in the 2-0 victory at Tulsa to get the duo a pair of honorable mention citations from the league. Smith had the first goal of the match with a 50-yard strike in the dying moments of the first half when she connected from inside the midfield circle. The goal was the second of her career and came on her first shot on goal this season while being named the No. 8 play of the day on SportsCenter’s Top 10 Plays. Bader iced the match for the Niners with her insurance goal in the last five minutes of the contest after she slotted a first-touch shot into the side netting after getting a great feed from Bailey Manfredi in the box.
Wakeman now has four Goalkeeper of the Week awards in her career after also taking home a pair of them last season during her nine-shutout campaign. She’s the only keeper in program history to win multiple such awards and the first CLT netminder to win multiple weekly awards since Jenn Howell’s five career Defensive Player of the Week awards from Conference USA. Winning both of her weekly awards in back-to-back weeks this season, Wakeman is the first Charlotte player since Hailey Beam in 2008 to win a weekly award in two consecutive weeks.
Smith’s honorable mention nod this week joins her Defensive Player of the Week award from September 9 after she made a goal-line save in Charlotte’s scoreless draw with No. 25 Clemson while Bader’s honorable mention is the first weekly mention for her this season after taking home an honor roll appearance last year. The duo this week join Wakeman as the three Niners to take home honorable mention status from the AAC weekly awards this season.