CLEVELAND, Ohio – Redshirt sophomore Saahb Kular of the Cleveland State University men's soccer team was selected as the Nike Horizon League Defensive Player of the Week as announced in a league release Friday afternoon.

It's the first career weekly award for Kular as he becomes the fifth active Viking to have won a weekly honor from the league, joining Ryan Kolonick, Thomas M'Barek, Omeed Naeemy and Jannis Schmidt.

Kular played a pivotal role in helping the Vikings keep a clean sheet as they picked up their first victory of the campaign with a 2-0 win at Robert Morris Wednesday afternoon.

Kular started in central defense and played all 90 minutes as the CSU defense blocked four of the eight Robert Morris shot attempts during the game. With the game scoreless at the half, Kular and his teammates did not allow the hosts to take a shot for the opening 35 minutes of the second half, giving the Viking offense time to score a pair of goals to put CSU out in front.

Kular has started 20 matches in his collegiate career, including 16 of CSU's past 17 matches on defense. He helped CSU allow a league-low 17 goals in 15 matches last season while playing 1,214 minutes in the 2019 campaign.

Kular teamed up with fellow defenders Kolonick, M'Barek and Nick McCausland while Naeemy patrolled the net during the shutout of RMU.

This is the sixth consecutive campaign in which at least one Viking has earned Defensive Player of the Week honors from the league.

Cleveland State will return to action this Tuesday, Feb. 16, as it hosts Detroit Mercy at 1:00 p.m.