SENDER EARNS NATIONAL TEAM OF THE WEEK HONORS
Senior Lily Sender, the Mountain West Offensive Player of the Year, is one of 11 players named to the Top Drawer Soccer National Team of the Week
UNLV Women’s Soccer forward and Mountain West Offensive Player of the Year Lily Sender has been named to Top Drawer Soccer’s National Team of the Week after she recorded the Rebels’ first hat trick since 2010 in Friday’s 4-2 title-clinching win at rival Nevada, Reno. Sender was also named the Mountain West Offensive Player of the Week after her performance — UNLV’s sixth weekly league honor of 2016.
The Honolulu, Hawaii, native has had a stellar senior campaign, leading the team and the Mountain West Conference in goals (14) and points (35) after scoring one goal and one assist in her previous three seasons. Her goals output ties the single-season program mark while her 35 points is a new program record for most in a single-season. Sender’s incredible performance this season was rewarded as she was named the Mountain West Offensive Player of the Year this week — just the third Rebel in the team’s history to earn the honor.
Friday’s win secured UNLV’s (15-3-2, 8-1-2) first regular season championship since 2007. It has been a record-breaking season for the Rebels as the team has set new marks for most wins (15), most goals (46) and most assists (46) in a single season in program history. In addition to Sender earning Offensive Player of the Year honors, junior Chidera Akubuilo garnered the program’s first Defensive Player of the Year award and head coach Chris Shaw was named the conference’s Coach of the Year. Overall, the Scarlet and Gray had a program-record nine players voted to the All-Conference teams — five on first team, two on second team and two on the All-Newcomer team.
Sender is the fifth National Team of the Week selection for the Rebels this season, with Susie Bernal earning honors last week, Jordan Magnin collecting the award in back-to-back weeks in early October and senior Dakota Blazak getting the nod in early September. Sender and junior Sophie Cortes have also been recognized as honorable mention selections this season.
TopDrawerSoccer.com is a nationally recognized website covering men’s and women’s collegiate and club level soccer. The site releases a National Division I Team of the Week each week throughout the season. The official release can be viewed here.
UNLV enters this week’s Mountain West Tournament in San Diego as the No. 1 seed with a first-round bye. They will face the winner of the Utah State/Wyoming quarterfinal match on Thursday at 4 p.m.
