Allison Leone

Western Kentucky junior Allison Leone captured Conference USA Goalkeeper of the Week laurels as announced by the conference office Monday morning, making WKU the first program in C-USA history to record a player of the week in five consecutive weeks.

The Kennesaw, Ga., native finished with 13 saves on WKU’s Texas road swing last weekend, including nine stops in a shutout performance at Rice on Friday. The nine saves were Leone’s most in a match while also recording a shutout and were the third-most in a single match in her career. The Goalkeeper of the Week honor is the first of Leone’s career on The Hill.

Prior to giving up a goal against North Texas, Leone and the WKU defense had built a 533-minute shutout streak, the third-longest active streak in Division I at the time. The Lady Toppers went nearly a full calendar month without surrendering a goal and trailed only Butler and South Alabama in the category.

Through four C-USA matches, Leone has made 16 saves while giving up only two goals, good for a 0.50 goals against average. The goalkeeper has saved nearly 90 percent of the shots put on target and sports a trio of shutouts in conference play.

For the season, the junior has started all 12 matches and sports a 0.72 goals against average with 38 saves in just under 1,000 minutes between the posts. Leone trails only UTEP’s Alyssa Palacios in goals against average and ranks third behind Palacios and Florida Atlantic’s Sydney Drinkwater with five shutouts.

Leone and the Lady Toppers will be back in action at the WKU Soccer Complex on Friday and Sunday this week, squaring off in a rivalry match against Middle Tennessee at 6 p.m. on Friday before taking on UAB at 1 p.m. on Sunday afternoon.