EAST LANSING, Mich. Michigan State women’s soccer senior forward Lauren DeBeau was named the consensus National Player of the Week and Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week, while the senior linebacker Raegan Cox and senior gatekeeper Lauren Kozal won the Big Ten Defensive Player and Goaltender of the Week, respectively, as announced Tuesday.
DeBeau was named the National Player of the Week by TopDrawerSoccer and College Soccer News, the first player to earn that accolade from multiple agencies in program history. The only previous National Player of the Week honor in Spartan history was awarded by TopDrawerSoccer Laura (Heyboer) Heethuis to the Michigan State Hall of Fame on October 13, 2008. DeBeau is the only College Soccer News National Player of the Week in the history of program.
The Shelby Township, Michigan, native was also named to each agency’s respective National Team of the Week honors, MSU’s seventh and eighth National Team of the Week honors of the 2022 campaign. DeBeau scored both of Michigan State’s goals last week, led the Spartans to a pair of 1-0 victories over then-No. 17 Ohio State on the road as well as No. 14 Rutgers in the regular season finale at DeMartin Stadium. Her goal in the 44th minute proved to be enough to lift Michigan State to its first outright conference title in program history.
In the following contest against, DeBeau secured MSU’s fourth Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week award of the season and her second individually, scoring an incredible goal with less than five minutes remaining against the Scarlet Knights. Her goal in the 86th minute not only secured Michigan State’s first undefeated conference season in the Big Ten, but gave the Green & White their first ever win over conference rival Rutgers.
Kozal made Big Ten Conference history on Tuesday, amassing career and single-season goalie of the week league records. The Ada, Michigan native picked up two solo goals and made six combined saves in blanking the Buckeyes and Scarlet Knights. She set a school record with her 14th shutout win of the season, matching the mark set by Renee Richert in 1986.
The senior earned her fifth career Goalkeeper of the Week honor, tying the Big Ten career mark set twice previously (Rutgers’ Meagan McClelland from 2018-22 and Wisconsin’s Jordyn Bloomer from 2017-21). She earned her third Goalie of the Week award this season, a new conference record — a Big Ten netminder had won the award twice in a season 12 times since the honor was created in 2018 (including Indiana’s Jamie Gerstenberg and Katherine Asman of Penn State, who were two-time recipients this year).
Tasked with two of the most challenging individual defense assignments in the league, Cox faced Ohio State’s Kayla Fischer and Rutgers’ Riley Tiernan, holding both of her opponents scoreless in the 11th and 12th shutouts. of the corresponding MSU of the year. With Cox anchoring the backline, MSU has climbed to the top of NCAA Division I in scoring defense, posting a nation’s best goals-against average of less than .400. Cox earned her first career Big Ten Player of the Week award and was MSU’s second consecutive Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week behind the graduating linebacker. Samantha White received that rating on October 18.
Sixth-ranked and top-seeded Michigan State returns to action on Sunday, Oct. 30, as the Green & White welcome the eighth-seeded Minnesota Golden Gophers to DeMartin Stadium in the quarterfinals of the 2022 Big Ten Tournament.
FOLLOW THE SPARTANS
Visit MSUSpartans.com for more information on Michigan State women’s soccer. Fans can keep up to date with the Spartan women’s soccer team on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter by following @MSU_WSoccer.
