Locally: Montana’s Taryn Miller named Big Sky women’s soccer top defensive player

They refer to Taryn Miller as the anchor. They also call the Montana junior from Central Valley the 2017 Defensive Player of the Year in Big Sky Conference women’s soccer.

Miller anchored a Grizzlies back line that allowed conference opponents just 8.7 shots and a conference-leading 0.70 goals per game, the latter figure ranking 30th among 332 NCAA Division I teams, as they finished second during the regular season.

“Taryn is an outstanding person and an outstanding leader, and she’s worked hard to become a better player,” Grizzlies coach Mark Plakorus said. “She had to step up this year and had to make an impact for us, and she has.”

Miller, a first-team All-Big Sky selection, also had two goals and an assist.

Miller’s defensive teammate, Ashlee Pedersen, a senior from Mt. Spokane, was an All-Big Sky second-team selection. She was honorable mention as a sophomore.

Two Idaho Vandals, senior defender Olivia Baggerly from Canby, Oregon, a first-team selection, and junior forward Bridget Daley from Carlsbad, California, who received honorable mention, were also honored.

College scene

Whitworth football players Mason Elms and Garrett McKay and men’s golfer Sam Stiles received Northwest Conference student-athlete of the week honors for the week of Oct. 24-30.

Elms, a junior from Sedro-Woolley, Washington, was the football offensive player of the week after recording a career-high 174 rushing yards with touchdown runs of 45 and 87 yards in a 30-20 win at Pacific. He averaged 10.9 yards a carry .

McKay, a junior from Tacoma, received special teams honors after setting a school record with an 82-yard punt return touchdown that gave the Pirates a 17-6 lead. It was Whitworth’s first punt return for a TD in more than 45 years. The old record of 64 yards was set in 1959.

Stiles, a sophomore from Mt. Spokane, was medalist at the Whitman Invitational in Walla Walla with a 3-under 69 in the fog-shrouded 18 hole event at Wine Valley Golf Course that included a hole-in-one on the 14th hole.

• Six athletes with area ties were selected to All-Great Northwest Athletic Conference teams in women’s soccer. Madi Taylor, a Northwest Nazarene junior forward from Lewiston; Claire Neder, a Seattle Pacific freshman midfielder from Mead; and Katie Greene, a Concordia freshman defender from Mead, were named to the second team. Taylor was honorable mention in 2016. The honorable mention list included Concordia freshmen and former Central Valley teammates Kasey Ames, a midfielder, and McKenna Stocker, a defender, and Northwest Nazarene senior midfielder Hannah Holm from University.

Dominic Welch, a Community Colleges of Spokane sophomore defender from Mead, was the Northwest Athletic Conference Player of the Week in men’s soccer for the week ending Nov. 1. Welch has been a key contributor to a Sasquatch defense that has limited opponents to just 10 goals, second best in the conference. He’s also had a goal and an assist for the third-ranked Sasquatch. “Dom has been a two-year starter at center back,” CCS coach Kenny Krestian said. “His ability to organize the team from the back has been a key part to our success. Dom loves to block shots and is a true example of what a defender should be.”

Max McCullough, an Eastern Oregon sophomore guard from Post Falls, was Cascade Collegiate Conference Men’s Basketball Player of the Week. He scored 40 points in two wins, including a team-high 25 in one game, and added eight assists as the Mountaineers pushed their season-opening record to 4-0. The Cascade Women’s Basketball Player of the Week was Multnomah junior guard Marquel Greene from Lapwai, Idaho, who scored a game-high 20 points and missed just one shot in a home loss to NAIA No. 25 California-Merced.

Summer Reid, a first-year player at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, has been named to the All-Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference first team in volleyball. Reid, a 5-foot-11 outside who was first-team All-Greater Spokane League as a senior at Ferris after being a second-team choice as a junior, was ninth in the MIAC in kills (3.20 per set) while hitting .215. She had double-digit kills in 20 of 33 matches with a season high of 20. She had a season high 25 digs.

Kendall Collins, the Spokane Falls Community College sophomore setter from University, has had the hot hand for the Sasquatch. For the third time in five weeks, Collins has been honored by the Northwest Athletic Conference in volleyball. She was the conference, and East Region, Setter of the Week in volleyball a week after she was named NWAC Player of the Week following an MVP performance in the Grays Harbor College Crossover. Three weeks prior to that, Collins was the East setter of the week. SFCC teammate Kaitlin Ramsey, a sophomore from Quincy, Washington, was the NWAC and East Region Defensive Player of the Week for last week.

Emily Busselman, a senior goalkeeper on the Eastern Washington women’s soccer team, and football junior running back Sam McPherson are the Eastern Washington Scholar-Athletes of the Month for October. Busselman, from Hanford, Washington, who has a 3.48 grade-point average in communication studies, backstopped the Eagles to a 7-1 record in October with five shutouts. McPherson, from Bothell, Washington, with a 3.79 GPA in mechanical engineering, scored touchdowns in all three games as the Eagles went 2-1 in October to raise his season total to five TDs.

Golf

Victoria Fallgren, Derek Bayley and Reid Hatley, a trio of area standouts, were named players of the year at the Washington State Golf Association’s 96th annual meeting last weekend in Woodinville, Washington.

Fallgren, the Gonzaga University assistant women’s coach and state women’s mid-amateur champion, is the Women’s Mid-Amateur Player of the Year. The state title qualified her for the 31st U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship, which starts Saturday and ends Nov. 16 in Houston.

Bayley, the Washington State senior from Rathdrum, was named Men’s Player of the Year. He had runner-up finishes in two of the region’s premier amateur championships, the Washington State Amateur for a second straight year and he Pacific Northwest Amateur.

Hatley, from Hayden Lake, was named Men’s Mid-Amateur Player of the Year for the third straight year. He was medalist in the U.S. Amateur qualifier, made it to the round of 16 in the Pacific Northwest Men’s Amateur and had top-five placings in four of five premier events.