Valley Release
 
ST. LOUIS – Missouri State goalkeeper Michael Creek was selected as the Missouri Valley Conference Men's Soccer Defensive Player of the Week, the league announced on Tuesday.
 
He is the sixth different MSU player to receive weekly conference honors this season.
 
Creek played 169:03 minutes between the pipes in back-to-back shutouts posted by the Bears last week against Omaha and Evansville. Behind Creek's stellar play, the Bears have earned shutouts in six of nine matches this season, including three in a row.  
 
He kept non-conference opponent Omaha off the scoreboard in MSU's 1-0 double overtime win against the Mavericks on Tuesday, Oct. 1.  Creek played all 106:08 minutes for the Bears and recorded three saves in the match, including an impressive diving save in the 64th minute to preserve the shutout for MSU.
 
The junior from St. Louis collected a season-high four saves in the Bears' 4-0 win over Evansville on Saturday, Oct. 5.  He lowered his conference leading goals against average to 0.340, allowing just three goals in 793:46 minutes played in 2019.   
 
Creek has made all nine starts for MSU this season, earning four shutouts and tallying 15 saves.  The four clean sheets this season give him 10 for his career, one game shy of tying Lance Parker (2004-07) for sixth on the school's all-time career leaders in shutouts.
 
For the fifth consecutive week and sixth overall, an MSU player earned weekly MVC honors with Creek joining teammates Jack Denton (Defensive, Week 2), Kyle Hiebert (Defensive, Week 3), Josh Dolling (Offensive, Week 3), Stuart Wilkin (Offensive, Week 4), and Ben Stroud (Defensive, Week 5).  
 
The undefeated Bears (9-0, 3-0 MVC), who moved up three spots to No. 14 in this week's NCAA Division I poll, host Bradley (3-3-3, 2-1-1 MVC) in a conference matchup on Wednesday at Betty and Bobby Allison South Stadium with kickoff at 7 p.m.