Oct. 21, 2002

Memphis, Tenn. - University of Memphis goalkeeper Katarina Wicksell was named the Conference-USA women's soccer Defensive Player of Week Monday for her excellent play in a pair of Lady Tiger victories this past weekend. The announcement was made by t he leauge office and the honor is only the second in the school's history as both have come in similar circumstances.

Wicksell notched back-to-back shutouts in two pivotal C-USA matches this past weekend as the Lady Tigers defeated confernce foes Southern Miss (Friday) and UAB (Sunday) each by the score of 1-0. Francis Currin, the only other Lady Tiger to earn the defensive honor, also received the award in 1997 after posting back-to-back league shutouts. These two occasions are the only instances that back-to-back league shutouts have been recorded by a Memphis squad.

"It's a great honor for Katarina," Head Coach Brooks Monoghan said. "We needed to get these two victories to keep our hopes alive for the conference tournament and she came up with two huge performances for us. And she did against two quality teams which makes it even more impressive."

For the weekend, the junior keeper stopped 11 shots in all and helped catapult the Lady Tigers back into contention for a berth in the upcoming league tournament, Nov. 6-9, in Charlotte, N.C. Memphis entered the weekend at the bottom of the C-USA standings in 14th place , but the two victories propelled the team all the way to seventh in the tightly-bunched standings.

A Memphis athlete has won the C-USA offensive weekly award six times with the latest coming in 2000 when Jessica Gjertsen was honored.

The Lady Tigers are now 3-4 in C-USA and have an overall record of 7-7-1. Memphis has three games remaining on its conference schedule and four overall. The Lady Tigers' next match is Friday at 7 p.m., against TCU at the Mike Rose Soccer Stadium.