Big Ten Release
ROSEMONT, Ill. – Penn State men's soccer senior forward Christian Sload was named Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week, as announced by the conference office Tuesday.
Sload netted both overtime game-winners in No. 16 Penn State's games against No. 17 Maryland and at Rutgers to conclude the 2019 regular season.
His overtime winner against Maryland was his first game-winning goal of the season and secured Penn State at least the No. 2 seed in the Big Ten Tournament while also giving the Nittany Lions their first win over Maryland since 2005. Sload's overtime goal at Rutgers kept Penn State undefeated on the road in 2019 after not winning a single road game last season.
The Reading, Pa., native is having a career-best final season for the Blue and White with 13 total points on four goals and five assists, good for tied-third and tied-seventh in the conference, respectively.
Sload was also named Top Drawer Soccer's Player of the Week and earned a spot on the Team of the Week.
Two conference games, two game winners for the latest Men's Player of the Week, highlighting one of the top turnaround performances in the 2019 season:https://t.co/iWf1RGTzyK
— TopDrawerSoccer (@TopDrawerSoccer) November 6, 2019
The honor is the first conference weekly honor of Sload's career and the fifth Big Ten weekly honor for Penn State men's soccer in 2019.
Both Aaron Molloy (10/22/19) and Liam Butts (10/15/19) have also won Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week awards while Josh Levine (10/1/19) and Brandon Hackenberg (9/24/19) earned weekly awards on the defensive side.
The five Big Ten Players of the Week is the most for Penn State since the 2014 season.
The No. 2-seed Nittany Lions host No. 7-seed Wisconsin in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament on Sunday, Nov. 10 at 1 p.m. at Jeffrey Field. Admission and parking are free for all fans.