A pair of College of Staten Island women’s soccer players earned weekly honors and the men’s soccer squad picked up one as well as the CUNYAC announced its Players of the Week. Junior Lauren Smith was named CUNYAC Player of the Week, while teammate Catherine Mulligan and men’s soccer counterpart Erick Conde both took the conference’s Defender of the Week honors as well. The results wrap up a quality week that saw both teams combine for a 5-0 record.
The CSI women’s team recorded three of the wins, scoring W’s against NJCU, Purchase, and Old Westbury. For her efforts, Smith, the 2015 CUNYAC Rookie of the Year, posted her first honor in this capacity, logging the most minutes of the Dolphins in the busy week, quarterbacking play in the midfield both on the rush and on the opposite side of the field. Smith perhaps added the most sterling goal of the week too, a 30-yard rocket late in the game against New Jersey City in a 3-0 win. She added a season high five shots, three on goal in a 1-0 overtime win over Old Westbury, playing in all but 10 minutes of that contest.
For the year, Smith has the single goal on 12 shots, logging 303 minutes in four starts. The goal was the eighth of her career.
Joining Smith on the weekly list was junior Catherine Mulligan. Last year’s Defender of the Year in the CUNYAC, this is her third Defender of the Week citation. The Dolphins got back to their defensive ways last week and recorded three straight shutouts and have now not given up a goal in 290+ minutes. Mulligan, as the anchor to the back line, is a huge reason why, helping hold opponents to just eight total shots on goal last week. Mulligan hasn’t come off of the field all season starting and finishing all four games thus far.
The CSI men’s soccer team is sporting a brand-new back line, and sophomore Erick Conde is actually one of the elder statesmen of the bunch. After 9 starts a year ago, Conde has already started all four this year, playing every minute in both games this past week that resulted in two Dolphins victories over Sarah Lawrence College and Lasell College. Conde added a single shot to the ledger as well, his first of the season.
Both CSI teams get back to action this week on Wednesday. The CSI men return home to face New Jersey City University at 4pm, while the women are under the lights at Lehman to kick off CUNYAC play at 7pm.