PonyFans.com

SMU's Olivia O'Rear earns Conference USA Offensive Player of the Week honors

Senior tallies one goal, three assists

Oct. 23, 2006

DALLAS (SMU) - SMU senior forward Olivia O'Rear was selected as this week's Conference USA Offensive Player of the Week, as announced by the league on Monday.

O'Rear either scored or assisted on all four SMU goals as the 22nd-ranked Mustangs extended their win streak to 11 straight matches. In Friday's 3-0 shutout of Marshall, she assisted on all three scores. The senior also netted the game-winner against East Carolina in a 1-0 victory. The three assists gave her 27 for her career to rank third in the school record book. This is the second C-USA Player of the Week honor for O'Rear this season. Her previous honor was awarded on Sept. 18.

Congrats!

Another well deserved honor for a great player.

When will CUSA honor the SMU defense. This current squad in 7 conference games has managed to allow only 3 goals and 19 shots on goal. Yet not once has the conference found it necessary to honor one of the back four or the goalkeeper. Where is the love?

My bad, a few weeks back Ashley Gunter shared defensive honors with the Rice keeper. The same keeper the women slap 5 onto a few games back. Still no love for the other four.

Very good point. Gunter has been honored, and she deserves her accolades, as she is a very talented keeper. But defenders Carley Phillips, Alyssa Pembroke and Morgan Field, and defensive midfielders Ashley Watson and Susanne Collins have been nothing short of sensational this year.

Carley Phillips is the one who always impresses me. She's kind of like Mynor Gonzalez on the guys team. Never looks like she's moving that fast, or even really that into the game. But like Mynor, she's smart, tough, technically sound and always makes the play - always. She's never caught out of position, and never takes the wrong angle. If she can get to the ball, she might not get it up to midfield, but she'll get it out of there until the defense can re-group. She's one player who I had serious concerns about when she started playing last year, until I realized that there were games when she was the best player on the field, and that wasn't a rare occurence, either. She's a real rock back there, and makes an already-good defense even better. The group in the back - Gunter included - is a big reason why they've won 11 straight.