Collins Earns A-Sun Defensive Player of the Week Honors
10/11/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
SPARTANBURG, S.C. – For the first time since the move to Division I, the USC Upstate women's soccer team has had a player earn Atlantic Sun Conference Player of the Week honors as freshman goalkeeper Rachel Collins (Raleigh, N.C./Athens Drive) earned defensive player of the week accolades announced today by the conference office in Macon, Ga.
Rachel Collins helped lead the Spartans to a pair of shutouts against teams in the top half of the Atlantic Sun Conference standings this weekend. Collins, who cemented her name in the USC Upstate record books a few times over the weekend, helped the Spartans earn double-overtime draws against Stetson and Florida Gulf Coast.
"This is a well deserved honor for Rachel," said head coach Renee Lopez. "She has been playing well this year and she has really stepped up as a freshman as she has competed very well against the top teams in our conference. She has been a dominant force between the posts for us and the future is extremely bright for her."
FGCU entered Sunday in first-place in the conference and the Eagles were riding a five-match winning streak, which was halted by the Spartans, as was FGCU's three-match winning streak in the series. Entering the weekend, Stetson was in a tie for fifth-place in the conference.
"This honor is a great step program as were our two draws this weekend," added Lopez. "We are looking to turn this program around and I have a great group of young ladies that have the desire and work ethic to get us to where we want to be. I also want to commend our goalkeeper coach, Lindsay Boldt, in her development of Rachel over the course of the season."
On Friday night against Stetson, the Spartan freshman recorded five saves in 110 minutes of action as Upstate claimed its fourth point in conference play for the first time since making the move to D-I in 2007. On Sunday, the Raleigh, N.C., native was again stellar between the pipes as she held the first-place Eagles scoreless. Collins tallied 12 saves in the double-overtime affair and her 12 saves were the most in a single conference match this season.
By helping Upstate to a pair of draws over the weekend, Collins name now appears numerous times in the Upstate record books as well as near the top in several A-Sun Categories.
Collins is currently riding a shutout streak of 247:10 which is the longest such streak since the 2004 season when Diana Wabnitz posted a streak of 407:23 (Sept. 9, 2004 – Oct. 6, 2004).
Her 103 saves through 15 matches leads the A-Sun, while placing her second in saves in a single-season D-I era, fourth for saves in a single season in program history and fifth for saves in a career. With the two shutouts, Collins now has three on the season, which is the most in D-I history, third-best in a career and fifth-most in school history during a single-season. Collins' two ties puts her first in D-I history, while placing her in a tie for first in program history (single-season), she also ranks third for ties in a career.
In the A-Sun, Collins leads the way in saves (103) and saves per match (6.87). She ranks third in save percentage (.817), while sitting in a tie for fourth with three shutouts. In conference only matches, she is first in saves (47) and saves per match (6.71), while ranking fourth in save percentage (.825).
The Spartans will return to action this weekend as they travel to Kennesaw State for a Friday night match, before traveling to Mercer for a Sunday matinee.
