Charlotte’s Sydney Smith Selected Defensive Player Of The Week
After anchoring Charlotte’s backline to a pair of clean sheets last week, Sydney Smith was named the American Athletic Conference Women’s Soccer Defensive Player of the Week, the league announced Monday afternoon (Sept. 9).
Smith played all 180 minutes on the pitch last week and helped keep opponents off the scoreboard for a 1-0 win over Campbell and a 0-0 draw with No. 25 Clemson. The win was Charlotte’s first victory of the season while Sunday’s draw with the Tigers marked just the sixth result against a ranked opponent in program history and the first since 2017. Additionally, the clean sheet against Clemson was the first time the Niners have blanked a power conference foe since beating NC State 1-0 in 2009.
That clean sheet can be directly attributed to Smith’s play on the backline as she got in front of a shot in the 85th minute to keep things scoreless. CLT goalkeeper Emma Wakeman was pulled out of the net making an initial save before the rebound found its way to another Tiger. She took a shot with no keeper in sight, but Smith was in the right place at the right time on the goal line to prevent the shot from going in.
Smith is the first Charlotte women’s soccer player to earn recognition from the conference this year and becomes the second player to earn an AAC weekly award after Wakeman took home a pair of Goalkeeper of the Week awards last season. Smith is the first Niner to be named Defensive Player of the Week since Riley Orr was named the Conference USA Defensive Player of the Week exactly five years ago to the day.
Charlotte opens conference play this Thursday (Sept. 12) with a 7 p.m. match against South Florida from Transamerica Field.