Dixie State senior All-American women’s soccer player Darian Murdock has been named the 2017-18 Pacific West Conference Female Athlete and Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Murdock is the first DSU student-athlete to win the conference’s year-end athlete of the year award in the program’s 11-year tenure as a league member. In addition, she is the second DSU student-athlete to claim the conference’s year-end academic award, joining former DSU softball player Courtney Sherwin, who won the award in the 2013-14 season.
Murdock, who this past May graduated with a 3.98 GPA in nursing, was named the PacWest Female Athlete of the Year and picked up her second-straight PacWest Women’s Soccer Scholar-Athlete Award earlier this week. Murdock was also named to the 2017 CoSIDA Academic All-America second team for the second-consecutive year, and she is also a four-time Academic all-PacWest honoree.
A two-time PacWest Women’s Soccer Player of the Year selection, Murdock collected 2017 D2CCA West Region Player of the Year and Second Team D2CCA All-America honors last fall after she finished the season ranked in the top 10 nationally in five statistical categories, including single-season school records for goals scored (19), game-winning goals (eight) and points (42). In all, Murdock’s name is etched atop five DSU single-season statistical categories, including becoming the first player in program history to register three hat tricks in one season, and in all three instances she was named PacWest Player of the Week.
Murdock scored at least one goal in seven of her last nine starts and in 11-of-18 matches overall with five multi-goal outings, while DSU played to a 10-1-0 record when she found the back of the net. She ended her four years as Dixie State’s career leader in game-winning goals (16) and finished third all-time in career goals (42), career points (94), career shots (204) and career shots on goal (104).