PORTLAND, Ore. – Helping the Montana State University Billings men's soccer team to a pair of wins and a draw last week, sophomore midfielder Guillaume Kremer has been picked as the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Week announced by the conference office on Monday.
 
Starting all three matches as the team's holding midfielder, playing directly in front of the defensive unit, Kremer also pushed forward and directly impacted the offense in all three matches.

 
"Guillaume is being rewarded by the GNAC for the instantaneous impact he's made not just on our program, but on our conference as a whole," said MSUB head coach Alex Balog on the first-year player from Metz, France. "He has worked very hard in the off-season to come in ready, and his efforts are paying off with a good start to the season with MSUB."
 
Kremer's effort led MSUB to a 6-0 win over the University of Mary last Monday, a 3-0 shutout over Northwest Nazarene University on Thursday, and a 3-3, double-overtime draw at Concordia University on Saturday. Playing as the team's lone holding midfielder, he was relied upon to help keep the team's possession in the defensive third and facilitate working out of the back.
 
Against Mary on Monday, Kremer scored his first goal of the season, as he pushed forward and found the net on a header. Against NNU on Thursday, he turned in his first assist of the year on the game-winning goal scored by Julian Toenges. The French sophomore also had the assist on MSUB's most important goal in the 3-3 draw against Concordia, helping the team strike less than 30 seconds after falling behind 3-1. He played all 110 minutes in the draw at Concordia, helping the team start its conference schedule with four points on the road.
 
"Guillaume contributed in all three games this past week, and got his first goal and two assists," Balog said. "For a player playing a defensive position, those are impressive statistics, and we hope that he can keep them up."
 
Serving as one of the team's captains in his first year with the 'Jackets, Kremer transferred to MSUB from the University of Strasbourg. He is the second player from the team to earn the conference's weekly defensive honor, which was also given to senior goalkeeper Tom Lohmann after a pair of shutouts earlier this season.
 
Kremer and the 'Jackets continue their road stretch this week, challenging Seattle Pacific University on Thursday in Seattle and Saint Martin's University on Saturday in Lacey, Wash. The team is 5-2-1 overall on the year and is off to a 1-0-1 start in conference play.