PULLMAN, Wash. – For the first time in her career, junior Brianna Alger was named the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Week as announced by the conference office Tuesday afternoon. The award for Alger was the first of the season for the Cougars and picked up where WSU left off a season ago after the team captured a conference-best nine weekly awards, including four on the defensive side, throughout the year.
 
The Cougars' latest weapon at left back, Alger immediately took to her new role on the field in the WSU's opener at Seattle dominating on both ends of the pitch. Wasting no time establishing herself as the team's primary distributor the third-year Coug tallied a pair of assists on the opening two goals of the season to get WSU off and running in 2019. For Alger, both assists came on perfectly placed corners as she found her targets in the middle of the box on back-to-back plays just two minutes apart in the early goings of the contest. The double assist game was the first of Alger's career and doubled her career assist total heading into the contest.
 
In addition to her prowess in the offensive third, the first-time defender helped lead the Cougs' to their first shutout of the year, smothering the Seattle U attack for 90 minutes. Not only pitching a shutout on the scoreboard the Cougars' defense nearly pitched a shutout in the shot column as well as WSU allowed just three total shots on the night with only one getting to the 'keeper. 
 
The Cougs and Alger kick off their home schedule Friday, Aug. 30 against Montana. The rematch of the first round of the 2018 NCAA Tournament is slated for a 7 p.m. start at Lower Soccer Field.