Kraft earns OVC soccer player of the week

A school-record performance has netted Southeast Missouri State's Casey Kraft the Ohio Valley Conference's offensive player of the week award for women's soccer.

Kraft, a freshman from St. Louis, scored three goals and had four assists during Saturday's 11-0 victory at Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Her 10 points broke Southeast's single-game record.

"Casey has the ability to dominate a match and she did that at Pine Bluff," Southeast coach Heather Nelson said. "She is getting more comfortable in our offensive system and has the opportunity to have a great freshman season."

The Redhawks will carry a 3-1 record into Friday's 7 p.m. match at Evansville, then return home for a 2 p.m. Sunday contest against Iowa at Houck Stadium.

Evansville, after going 3-13-1 last season, is off to a 4-2 start. Iowa is 1-4-1. The Hawkeyes went 2-14-2 a year ago and did not win a Big 10 Conference match for the second straight season.

Zeiler also honored

Southeast junior Lindsay Zeiler has been named the OVC female cross country runner of the week. She finished 13th out of 165 runners at Saturday's Memphis Twilight Classic that opened the season for Southeast.

Zeiler, the 2002 OVC cross country champion who has missed the last two cross country seasons with injuries, ran the three-mile course in 17:55.14.

"Lindsay has been training well and seems to be over the effects of the leg injury that has hampered her the last two seasons," Southeast coach Eric Heins said. "We have to be careful with her training, but if she stays healthy she is one of the top runners in the OVC."

Zeiler and her teammates have this week off from competition. Southeast returns to action Sept. 24 at Louisville.

--From staff reports