Barker Named Big Ten Co-Freshman of the Week
10/11/2011 12:00:00 AM | Field Hockey
Oct. 11, 2011
EAST LANSING, Mich. - Freshman forward Abby Barker was tabbed as the Co-Big Ten Freshman of the Week for the week of October 11th, as announced by the Conference office. It is the first time this season she has earned weekly Big Ten honors.
The Columbus, Ohio native scored all three goals last weekend in MSU's 1-0 victory over Ball State and its 4-2 loss to No. 15 Indiana. Her goal in the win over Ball State came at 16:21 when Barker pulled the goaltender out of her cage and shot the ball over her head. Barker also tied up the game twice against the Hoosiers before Indiana pulled away for the 4-2 victory. Her
first goal came as time was winding down in the half, when she was able to gather up Jessica Lindner's deflection and sneak the ball past the goaltender. Barker tied the game time three minutes into the second half after scoring off of a scrum in front of the cage.
Barker leads the Spartans in scoring with eight goals and one assist for a total of 17 points. She also has tallied the most game-winning goals on the team with three. This is the first conference accolade of her career. Barker has a goal-scoring streak of three games, and has accounted for five of the Spartans' six goals scored in the past four games. She is the first Big Ten Freshman of the Week since Molly Cassidy was named last season for the week of Nov. 1st.
The Spartans return home this weekend, hosting Ohio State on Friday, Oct. 14th at 3 p.m.
