SPARTANBURG, S.C. – UNCG freshman forward Katherine Rodriguez has been named the Southern Conference’s women’s soccer player of the week for all matches Oct. 15-21. The award is selected by the league office.

Rodriguez scored six points on three goals in wins over Samford and Chattanooga as the Spartans vaulted into first place in the league standings. She had the game-winner in both contests.

In a showdown between the top two teams in the league, Rodriguez scored the game’s lone goal in a 1-0 win over first-place Samford on Friday. Rodriguez’s goal came off a corner kick in the 41st minute and sent UNCG to the top of the conference standings. The Spartan win snapped Samford’s 22-match unbeaten streak against SoCon opponents, which dated back to the start of the 2011 campaign.

Playing in her home state of Tennessee two days later, Rodriguez had a pair of goals in UNCG’s 4-0 win over Chattanooga. The Franklin native notched the first goal of the contest in the 21st minute and made it a 3-0 contest with another score in the 62nd.

Rodriguez has scored all four of her goals on the season in UNCG’s last three matches, picking up the game-winning tally in each one.

The weekly award is the first of Rodriguez’s career. She becomes the third UNCG freshman to earn the award this season, joining Jamie Simmons (Aug. 21 and Oct. 9) and Chesney White (Aug. 28).

UNCG (11-6-1, 8-1-1 SoCon) will close the regular season at Elon (6-7-6, 4-2-4 SoCon) on Wednesday at 7 p.m. with a chance to lock up the regular-season title and the No. 1 seed in the upcoming Southern Conference Women’s Soccer Championship on the line.

Also nominated: Meggie Graham (Appalachian State), McCallie Jones (College of Charleston), Mariana Garcia (The Citadel), Stephanie Piperno (Davidson), Catherine Brinkman (Elon), Rose Hull (Furman), Nora El-Shami (Georgia Southern) and Markie-Lynn Studnicky (Western Carolina).


2012 SoCon Women’s Soccer Players of the Week
Aug. 21    Jamie Simmons, UNCG
Aug. 28    Chesney White, UNCG
Sept. 4    Katie Merson, Georgia Southern
Sept. 11    Kaley Blanton, Samford
Sept. 18    Julia Holz, Appalachian State
Sept. 25    Jennifer Lauer, Western Carolina
Oct. 2    Stephanie DeVita, Furman
Oct. 9    Jamie Simmons, UNCG
Oct. 16    Melissa Montgomery, Samford
Oct. 23    Katherine Rodriguez, UNCG
-www.SoConSports.com-