Players Bench Athletes of the Week: November 21 – 27

Female Athlete of the Week

The defending U SPORTS national champion Cougars women’s hockey team kept rolling while visiting the Trinity Western Spartans last weekend, extending their winning streak to seven games. After receiving the second overall ranking in the country earlier in the week, Mount Royal defeated the Spartans 3-2 on Friday and then shut out Trinity Western 2-0 on Saturday.

The Players Bench Female Athlete of the Week is Allee Gerrard. The second-year forward is in the midst of a breakout season for the Cougars, leading the team in goals with 10. After the Cougars saw their 2-0 lead wiped away by Trinity Western, Gerrard scored the game-winning goal when she redirected Emma Bergesen’s point shot with less than three minutes in the game. Following her heroics on Friday, the winger scored again in Saturday’s tilt early in the first period. The goal would end up being the decider in the Cougars’ 2-0 win in Langley.

Hailing from Southey, Sask., Gerrard is enrolled in the Health and Physical Education program at MRU.

Male Athlete of the Week

Mount Royal’s men’s volleyball team took home Crowchild Classic bragging rights over the weekend, sweeping the University of Calgary Dinos with a pair of 3-1 victories at the Jack Simpson Gym. With the two wins, the Cougars move back above .500 with a 6-4 record in an extremely competitive Canada West conference.

For the second week in a row, the Players Bench Male Athlete of the Week is Chris Byam. The 6-6 rightside hitter outdid last weeks’ performance, guiding his squad to take two-of-two wins against the Dinos. On Friday, Byam tallied 20 kills, three aces and two blocks. Following his teamleading showcase, Byam surpassed his previous kill total, registering a season-high 22 kills. At the conclusion of the match, the veteran Cougar had accounted for nearly half of MRU’s kills. After another productive weekend, Byam inches closer to reaching 1,000 regular season kills, currently sitting at 972.

Byam is a fourth-year student in MRU’s Health and Physical Education program.