Senior goalkeeper Allison Farrington was selected as the Missouri Valley Conference Defensive Player of the Week Monday.
To be honest, I really dont care about the awards, Farrington said. I just care about winning the conference tournament. Any awards we get along the way are nice, but they dont really matter unless we win the big one.
Farrington recorded consecutive shutouts in Illinois States contests last week against Evansville and Indiana State, as the Redbirds upped their Valley record to 3-0. The senior captain has tallied six shutouts so far this season and has been scored on just four times, for a season goals against average of 0.46, the lowest in the Valley.
Head coach Pete Kowall thinks Farrington has played well all season, especially as of late.
Allison is doing well and were really comfortable with her in goal, Kowall said. We have confidence in her and she is orchestrating things well in the back. Shes communicating very well and thats probably the biggest thing you want in a goalkeeper in order to alleviate a lot of problems.
Farrington, who was Illinois States MVP last season, played in all but one game last year. She also earned Defensive Player of the Week honors twice on her way to earning All-Valley honorable mention accolades. The Libertyville native was also selected to the Valley All-Tournament Team and finished the season ranked No. 12 nationally in goals against average at 0.67.
The senior captain has a tough defense in front of her, affording Farrington just 28 saves in ten games of action. Farrington attended Neosho County Community College in Kansas before enrolling at Illinois State.
The 6-4-2 Redbirds are in the heart of Valley play and will travel to Springfield, Mo. this weekend. Theyll face Drury on Friday at 7 p.m. and then square off with SMS at 1 p.m. Sunday. Heading into the weekend, the Birds and Drake share the top spot in the Valley standings with identical records of 3-0.
According to Kowall, its always difficult to win games in the league because all the teams are tough to score on. He sees this weekend as especially difficult since Drury and SMS always come out ready to compete.
Drurys got some new kids this year and they always fight hard, Kowall said. And SMS is a good team even though they graduated a few kids from last year. It will be a good weekend for us.
Farrington shares Kowalls sentiments.
Its never an easy trip. Well have some hard practices this week to prepare for it, Farrington said. It will be a tough growing weekend, but I think well come out on top.
