91原创鈥檚 Mikayla Tupper is the winner of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) Newcomer of the Year award.

Tupper, who finished the 2023 NCAA regular season with three goals and an assist for seven points in 12 games, shared the honour with Taylor Krueger of the GNAC champion Seattle Pacific Falcons.

Tupper was also recognized as an All-GNAC Honorable Mention.

鈥淚鈥檓 really happy for Mikayla,鈥� said interim SFU head coach Carlo Basso.

鈥淪he has been a wonderful addition to the group and a real professional in how she trains for the sport. She comes in to work every day and it has really paid off for her. I could not be prouder of how she has handled her first year with the program and in the GNAC.鈥�

The award was announced Nov. 7.

Great Northwest Athletic Conference is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level.

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A Walnut Grove Secondary grad, Tupper was a part of the Vancouver Whitecaps Girls Elite REX program from 2017 to 2020, and the BC provincial team system between 2015 and 2018.

Tupper won national Under-15 national team championships in softball and soccer in 2017, the same year she was a provincial MVP in soccer.

Tupper is a transfer from the University of Miami, where she appeared in 24 games in two seasons with the Hurricanes of the Atlantic Coast Conference. She has also played the last two summers with Unity FC of League 1 BC, and scored the first goal in team history last year.

When her arrival was announced in August, Tupper said she chose SFU because she 鈥渨anted to find a school where I could still have great competition and opportunities in my career and be surrounded by a great environment with teammates who want to play, win, work hard and have fun.鈥�

In October, in her first game as a Red Leaf, Tupper scored twice to lead the team to a 4-0 shutout of the Central Washington Wildcats, their largest margin of victory since 2018.

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At the 2023 GNAC Women鈥檚 Soccer Championships Thursday, Nov. 9 Red Leafs defeated top-seeded Seattle Pacific 4-2 at Tomlinson Stadium in Ellensburg, WA in the semifinal, then won the final against Western Washington 2-1. on Saturday, Nov. 11.