(St George, UT - Aug 18, 2026) – Utah Tech women's soccer senior forward, Ella Rusick, has been named Big Sky Offensive Player of the Week, the conference announced Tuesday. 

Ella has notched all three Trailblazer goals in their first two matches of the season, including four shots and three shots on goal. Starting in both matches, Ella also leads the conference in points with six.

Rusick has already eclipsed her goal total from last season, and is one point shy of tying her total from last season. She has also tied her career high in goals with three in 2023, in just two matches thus far. 

The senior forward got the Trailblazer season off to a terrific start in game one versus UC Irvine, where she scored just 64 seconds into the match. The goal was enough for UT to be able to hang on for a season opening draw with UCI, 1-1. 

In the second match of the season versus UC San Diego, Ella cut the Triton lead in half by netting two goals in a span of less than three minutes of game time. The first goal came off of a turnover, leading to a nice set up from Lataya Brost, where Rusick chipped it up and over the drawn out goalie. Brost has assisted on 2 of the 3 Trailblazer/Rusick goals this season. The second goal, coming just 2:50 later, was set up on a pretty stretch pass up the left side from Abby Olsen, where Ella lofted it over the goalie, placing it in the upper right corner. 

This marks the first Big Sky Conference in-season award for Utah Tech athletics, and the first weekly award of Rusick's UT career.