Oct. 3, 2011
BIG EAST Weekly Release
PROVIDENCE, R.I.--Senior forward Katie Ryan (Wayne, N.J.) was named the BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Week and redshirt freshman midfielder Stephanie Myers (Downingtown, Pa.) earned a spot on the league's weekly Honor Roll, the conference announced on Monday afternoon. Both players were pivotal in two wins for Villanova over the weekend.
Ryan was unstoppable in the victories over Pittsburgh and West Virginia, totaling nine points in two games and also breaking a school record which had stood for 25 years. She scored one goal and had one assist in a 3-1 win over the Panthers on Friday to help the Wildcats snap a six-game losing streak.
In a 4-1 win over the Mountaineers on Sunday afternoon Ryan had the best single game of her career with two goals and two assists to help Villanova end West Virginia's 17-game winning streak versus conference opponents. Ryan scored the Wildcats first two goals of the game barely more than two minutes apart in the middle of the first half to first tie the score at 1-1 and then give Villanova a 2-1 lead. She later assisted on a pair of second half goals to seal the Wildcats first win this season over a ranked team.
The game-winning goal Ryan scored against the Mountaineers was the 15th of her career and is a new school record. She had previously been tied with Cathy Ford (1983-85) and Ann Brennan (1983-86), both members of the inaugural varsity Villanova women's soccer team. During the weekend, Ryan also moved up to third place in school history in both career goals (37) and career points (96) as well as becoming the eighth player in program history to reach 20 or more career assists (she has 22).
Ryan earns Offensive Player of the Week honors for the second time in her career and the first time since October 12, 2009 during her sophomore year. She has also received three career Honor Roll mentions and as a freshman in 2008 was the BIG EAST Rookie of the Week on three occasions.
Another big factor in the Wildcats two wins last week was the play of Myers, who is having an impressive season after suffering a season-ending injury in the fifth game of the 2010 campaign. Myers scored the first game-winning goal of her collegiate career in the win over Pittsburgh and then added one goal and one assist in the 4-1 outburst against West Virginia.
Myers started the play that led to the game-winning goal against the Mountaineers and scored a goal of her own in the 74th minute to deal the final blow to the West Virginia defense. She tallied three shots on goal out of her four attempts in the game.
With five points on the weekend Myers moved into second place on the team this season in both goals scored (5) and points (14). She is also third on the squad with four assists. Villanova is 4-1-2 when Myers registers at least one point in a game. This is her first weekly recognition from the BIG EAST.
The wins over the Panthers and Mountaineers had bigger implications than simply ending a six-game losing streak for the Wildcats, as Villanova moved up to fifth place in the regular season National Division conference standings and back into the race for a playoff spot in the BIG EAST Championship later this month.
