VIDEO: Bram Kaarsgaren Interview

ROCK HILL, S.C. – With a pair of clean sheets to his name this past week, Bram Kaarsgaren was named the South Atlantic Conference Defensive Player of the Week, as announced by the league on Tuesday.

This marks the first time this year that Carson-Newman has been represented on the conference's weekly awards list. Kaarsgaren still leads the program in weekly laurels with this now being his sixth since coming to Mossy Creek in 2019.

The Den Bosch, The Netherlands native anchored an Orange and Blue defense that allowed 16 shots and six on goal in shutout wins over Tusculum and Queens. In net, he grabbed five saves on the week in 186 minutes played. His efforts helped the team to remain at the top of the SAC table with 15 points, still sitting at a perfect 5-0 in league action.

"We waited a long time for those shutouts this year," Kaarsgaren said. "Last year, it was kind of like an automatic, had a lot of them, seven in a year. Had to wait a bit longer for them this year, but, yeah, it was a bit frustrated the last weeks, but, finally, two clean sheets in one week is fantastic."

With the two clean sheets, moved into a tie with Rumwald Le Guevel for the third-most career wins in program history with 22 while moving his career shutout mark to 13.1, good enough for fourth-most.

In a 1-0 derby win over Tusculum on Wednesday, Kaarsgaren needed just one save in the match, not allowing a goal for the first time since a 4-0 SAC Tournament quarterfinal win over Lincoln Memorial on April 5, 2021. He and the Eagles contained the Pioneers to just two shots on goal, matching a season-low for C-N opponents this season.

On Saturday at Queens, Kaarsgaren made three of his four saves in the opening 45 minutes. He picked up the third overtime shutout of his career and the first to come in a single period of overtime. The last extra-time clean sheet he recorded before that was a 1-0 double-overtime win at Catawba on Oct. 26, 2019.

"Defense is doing absolutely phenomenal this year," Kaarsgaren said. "I promised the boys, as well, to give them a lot of credit. It's kind of like a personal one but definitely the whole defense deserves this award."

This season, he sits at 6-2 on the year, playing in all 725:34 of game play for the Eagles. He has saved 20 of the 61 shots he has faced, saving at a .690 clip with a 1.12 goals against average. He is third in the league for goals against average and shutouts while sitting at sixth for save percentage.

Carson-Newman steps out of SAC play with one final non-conference match on Wednesday against Shaw. Kickoff for the match is set for 4:30 p.m. from McCown Field. A live broadcast of the match can be found at cneagles.com.