North Park’s Soerum and Millikin’s Smith named CCIW men’s soccer players of the week

North Park University’s Mathias Soerum and Millikin University’s Christian Smith have been recognized as the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) Men’s Soccer Student-Athletes of the Week. The announcement was made Tuesday following their performances in recent non-conference matches.

Soerum, a junior midfielder from Brumunddal, Norway, played the entire match for North Park during their game at Aurora last Wednesday. He contributed two assists in the Vikings’ 3-1 win. Soerum assisted on Kevin Perez’s goal at 57:35, which put North Park ahead 2-0, and later set up Thomas Roenning for an insurance goal in the 79th minute.

Christian Smith, a senior at Millikin, earned recognition on the defensive side. In his first career start, Smith faced 11 shots and recorded nine saves to help lead the Big Blue to a 5-0 shutout victory over Monmouth last Saturday in Decatur. This performance also marked his first career win and shutout.