Fresh off a sweep of its four-match Hawaiian road swing, Dixie State men’s soccer team picked up two Pacific West Conference weekly awards on Monday. Freshman goalkeeper Zach Nielson was named PacWest Defender of the Week, while forward Moises Medina was tabbed as the league’s Freshman of the Week.
Nielson (6-foot-4; West Point, Utah/Northridge HS), who earned the conference’s freshman award a week ago, started and won all three matches played last week at Hawai’i Pacific, Hawai’i Hilo and Chaminade, and did not allow a goal in 195:56 combined minutes of game action. Bolstered by the overall stout play of the Trailblazers’ defense, which allowed only one goal on the road trip, Nielson made a total of seven saves in his three starts and lowered his goals against average to 0.26.
Medina (6-0; Mesquite, Nevada/Virgin Valley HS) earned his second PacWest freshman honor in three weeks after he tallied seven points on three goals and an assist in three matches last week. He recorded his first collegiate multi-goal game with a pair of goals in DSU’s 3-0 win at Hawai’i Hilo. Medina then collected his team-leading fifth game-winning goal in Dixie State’s last six matches and assisted on another tally in the Trailblazers’ 4-1 win at Chaminade last Saturday. Medina currently co-leads the PacWest in game-winning goals (five) and is fifth in goals scored (six), tied for fourth in points (16) and tied for fifth in assists (four).
DSU has virtually owned the PacWest freshman award this season as a Trailblazer player has won the honor in each of the last four weeks and in five of the seven total weeks overall. In addition to Medina and Nielson, midfielder Jandir Porta (Sept. 12) and forward Christian Hall (Sept. 26) have earned the weekly freshman award.
PacWest leader Dixie State (10-3-0, 8-0-0) closes its 2016 regular season with five-straight PacWest home matches, beginning with a date vs. Academy of Art on DSU's Homecoming on Saturday, Oct. 22, at 5:30 p.m., at Legend Solar Stadium.
Steve Johnson is the Associate Athletic Director for Media Relations and Collegiate Licensing at Dixie State University. For more DSU Athletics news, please visit www.dixieathletics.com and follow Dixie State on Twitter at @DixieAthletics.