Orlando Pride goalkeeper Ashlyn Harris provided some of the best highlights for the first-year National Women’s Soccer League team. Those highlights contributed to her winning the 2016 NWSL Goalkeeper of the Year award Tuesday, per a league announcement.
Harris helped the ninth-place Pride by posting four clean sheets, finishing with a 5-9-1 record this season. The 30-year-old won a league-high eight NWSL Save of the Week awards en route to the league’s second-most 62 saves. Harris faced the third-most shots on goal (82), behind only the Houston Dash’s Lydia Williams (83) and FC Kansas City’s Nicole Barnhart (102).
The University of North Carolina alumna found herself in good company, as she was pitted against the Portland Thorns FC’s Michelle Betos and the Chicago Red Stars’ Alyssa Naeher. The former won the goalkeeper award in 2015 while the latter received the honor in 2014. In 2013, Barnhart won.
Harris is the first member of an expansion team to win a league award, according to the Pride’s press release.
[…] earned the National Women’s Soccer League Goalkeeper of the Year award in 2016. The 30-year-old posted four clean sheets and won a league-high eight NWSL Save of […]