BRIDGEPORT, Pa. — Olympic Gold Medalist Ashleigh Johnson (Sr., Miami, Fla./Ransom Everglades) recorded 25 saves in three games to lead the No. 10-ranked Princeton University Tigers to the title game of the 2017 Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Championship at Indiana University’s Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatic Center and earn the league’s May 1 CWPA Defensive Player of the Week award.
Competing in her final weekend of varsity competition after leading the United States National Team to a Gold Medal at the Summer Olympics, she stopped 16 shots in 27:52 with five goals allowed in a 16-7 opening round victory over Bucknell University. Following a seven save performance in a complete game 8-7 defeat of No. 13 Hartwick College, she wrapped-up her days in a Tigers’ suit by making 12 saves in a 5-4 loss to No. 7 the University of Michigan.
She concludes her intercollegiate career as a 25-time weekly award recipient from the league office.
The laurel marks her fourth of the season as she previously claimed notice as the February 6, March 6 and March 20 CWPA Division I Defensive Player of the Week.
Johnson was an eight-time weekly honor recipient in 2015 as she shared the February 16 Defensive Player of the Week laurel with former Tigers’ netminder Helena van Brande, claimed the March 30 and May 4 honors outright in addition to picking up the April 13, April 27 and May 11 Defensive Player and Player of the Week awards.
The February 10, February 17, March 3, March 10, March 17 and April 28 Southern Division Defensive Player of the Week and April 28 Player of the Week in 2014, she became the first player in conference history to sweep the weekly awards, earning February 11 Southern Division Player, Defensive Player and Rookie of the Week accolades as a freshman in 2013.
Further, she was named the Defensive Player of the Week on February 18, March 18, and April 15, in addition to the April 15 Co-Rookie of the Week for the Southern Division in 2013.
May 1 CWPA Division I Defensive Player of the Week Honor Roll: Marisol Dakan (Brown University); Manuela Herrera (Bucknell University); Josette Santos (Hartwick College); Cleo Harrington (Harvard University); Davis Simmons (Indiana University); Kate Wilke (Saint Francis University); Heidi Ritner (University of Michigan)
