The number of saves a goalkeeper makes isn't necessarily an indication of the quality of her performance. A goalkeeper can change a game without making a save or prove mediocre while making a lot.
So, yes, USC redshirt senior Sammy Jo Prudhomme is espnW's national player of the week after she made 17 saves in shutouts away from home against Georgia and Auburn. She set a career high with nine saves against the Bulldogs on Friday at a tournament hosted by Auburn; her seven second-half saves equaled her previous career best for an entire game. Then she nearly matched her new standard with eight saves Sunday against Auburn, USC's second shutout win in eight days against a ranked opponent (the Trojans blanked Pepperdine on Aug. 28).
But it isn't just the quantity of saves that earns her top billing. It is a weekend's worth of quality for a team that not coincidentally has designs on rearranging the Pac-12 hierarchy.
If the game against Georgia was Prudhomme's starring role -- USC coach Keidane McAlpine said she "made difficult saves look easy" -- on a day when the 3-0 USC win might not have been an accurate reflection of the competition, then the clean sheet against Auburn was a subtle masterpiece of supporting acting.
In truth, most of her saves against the Tigers were routine, easy saves she didn't make look difficult, to rearrange McAlpine's description. The best came early in the second half, USC ahead by a goal in a back-and-forth game. With her team in transition after a USC miscue, Auburn's Kristen Dodson played a fantastic bending ball from the right side that curled behind the back line and into the path of teammate Ellie Leek. With no help near, Prudhomme took a step out to cut down the shooter's angle, dived to her left and pushed away the ball.
She later pushed a shot over the bar, and there was a first-half blast off the crossbar that she had covered had its trajectory been any lower. But this wasn't Tim Howard under siege against Belgium in the World Cup. In her second season on the field for USC after transferring from Oregon State, Prudhomme can be a shot-stopper; it just isn't her only skill.
The quality of the performance against Auburn was as much in the way she read a pass, bolted off her line in the fourth minute and claimed a ball before it could become a shot that needed saving. Or the way she met a corner minutes later, assertively turning the set piece into an afterthought. It was the way the defenders in front of her calmly played the ball back to her feet, confident in her as an outlet against defensive pressure.
It wasn't the best game of her life. It might not have been her best game of the weekend. But it was a composed, mature demonstration that anchored a win on the road against a ranked opponent. If it is the saves we most often notice from goalkeepers, Prudhomme made plenty. They just aren't the only reason she is the player of the week.
