FARMINGTON, Utah (Oct. 31, 2022) – With the regular-season concluded for Big Sky soccer, the conference office announced its 2022 individual award winners for the sport, as voted on by league head coaches. Coaches could not vote for their own players.
The Offensive MVP and Golden Boot Award were split between Eastern Washington's Maddie Morgan and Weber State's Morgan Furmaniak after the pair finished tied in votes and points in conference play. Morgan and Furmaniak finished the 2022 conference slate with 10 points each, as Morgan tallied four goals and two assists while Furmaniak posted five goals and no assists to reach her total. The Golden Boot Award tie is the first in the league since Amanda Ellsworth of Idaho State and Juliana Grover of Northern Colorado finished with the same total of points in 2014.
Defensive MVP was won by Sacramento State's Aubrey Goodwill, who helped lead the Hornets to a result in five of their last seven matches to secure the No. 4 seed in Greeley this week. Goodwill also contributed on the offensive end, as the senior led the team with four goals and three assists on the year. Sacramento State has now won Defensive MVP three times in the last four years overall.
Idaho's Kira Witte earned Goalkeeper of the Year and Newcomer of the Year honors, as the freshman made a lasting mark in her first year with the Vandals. The German native tied the Big Sky's single-season shutout record with 11 clean sheets this past season, while logging 60 saves and an .833 save percentage as well. Witte becomes the first Vandal to win Goalkeeper of the Year since 2018 and the program's first Newcomer of the Year since 2016.
The 2022 Big Sky Soccer Championship officially gets underway on Wednesday, Nov. 2 at 11:00 a.m. MT, from the University of Northern Colorado. All matches from Greeley, Colorado, will stream on ESPN+. For more information on the tournament, click
here.
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2022 Big Sky Individual Award Winners
Co-Offensive MVP: Maddie Morgan, Eastern Washington/Morgan Furmaniak, Weber State
Defensive MVP: Aubrey Goodwill, Sacramento State
Goalkeeper of the Year: Kira Witte, Idaho
Co-Golden Boot: Maddie Morgan, Eastern Washington/Morgan Furmaniak, Weber State%
Newcomer of the Year: Kira Witte, Idaho
% - Each finished conference play with 10 points