ABILENE – Former ACU women's soccer standout
Andrea Carpenter was recently honored by the Panhandle Sports Hall of Fame as one of the top athletes who call the Panhandle area their home.
Carpenter – who graduated from Canyon Randall High School – was honored as the organization's Soccer Player of the Year. The award was announced at the PSHOF banquet on Sunday, Feb. 9, at Amarillo College's Ordway Auditorium.
In addition to Carpenter's honor, former West Texas A&M volleyball standout-turned-ACU assistant coach Sarah (Butler) Carthel was inducted into the Panhandle Sports Hall of Fame, along with her father-in-law, former West Texas A&M head football coach Don Carthel, who spent some time at ACU as a volunteer assistant coach.
Carpenter closed her Wildcat career in 2013 by earning third all-Central Region honors by the National Soccer Coaches' Association. Carpenter was one of three forwards named to the third team along with Lauren Hughes of Rice and Azia Nicholson of UTEP. Nicholson's Miners tied ACU at 1-1 last September, which was the program's first match against a NCAA Division I program.
The honor was the third presented to Carpenter from the NSCAA, which named her first team all-region and all-America in 2011 after she totaled 35 points on 16 goals and three assists. Last season - which was her only as an NCAA Division I student-athlete - Carpenter again led the Wildcats in scoring with 32 points, tallying 13 goals and a career-season high six assists.
Carpenter ranked second in the Southland Conference to Nicholls State's Spencer Valdespino in points and goals, and tied for fourth in the league in assists.
A three-time all-America, Carpenter was named all-conference at the end of each of her four seasons as she collected a program record 127 points on 56 goals and 15 assists through 77 starts. She made First Team all-Southland Conference in October and was a three-time all-Lone Star Conference selection from 2010 to 2012. She also was the LSC's Freshman of the Year in 2010 and its Offensive Player of the Year in 2010 and 2011.
ACU finished its season with an impressive overall record of 13-5-1 and went 7-5 with 21 points against the Southland Conference to place fourth. The Wildcats, however, were kept out of the postseason tournament as they began their transition from NCAA D-II to D-I athletics.
