Colorado State goalkeeper Hunter Peifer was voted to the 2017 Mountain West Women’s Soccer All-Newcomer Team on Monday afternoon.
Peifer’s award is the first Mountain West yearly honor of any kind in CSU soccer’s five-year history. The 12 Mountain West head coaches voted Peifer to the team for her work backstopping the Rams to their best conference record to date.
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The Colorado Springs native defended the Rams’ net in every Mountain West match, except the senior night season finale. Her three shutouts in ten conference appearances are the second highest of any goalkeeper in the league. In total, the redshirt sophomore racked up 75 saves and allowed 1.5 goals per game.
Peifer began her award-winning campaign with a five-save performance versus No. 25 Colorado in one half of play. In her second complete game as a Ram, Peifer set a program record for most saves in a single match with eleven at SIU Edwardsville.
The former under-20 National Development Team member remarkably made saves on two penalty kicks within the span of two minutes at UNLV. After the game, CSU head coach Bill Hempen said that was the first time he’d seen one of his goalies do that in his 28-year coaching career.
Peifer also shutout the regular season Mountain West champions San Jose State for 92 minutes and played a key role in CSU’s first ever win over Utah State.
Although Peifer is a Mountain West newcomer, she began her collegiate career at South Carolina. After redshirting for a season, Peifer appeared in four games for the Gamecocks in 2016, including the second half of an NCAA Tournament matchupagainst Alabama State.
Peifer transferred to CSU last year at the beginning of the spring semester and will be among 22 Rams returning to the pitch when the soccer season resumes again next fall.
Collegian sports reporter Christian Hedrick can be reached by email at sports@collegian.com or on Twitter @ChristianHCSU.
