College Field Hockey: Rider’s Penas NEC Player of the Week

SOMERSET - Junior Sandra Penas (Barcelona, Spain) of the Rider University field hockey team was named the Northeast Conference Player of the Week for all games the last week of September it was announced Monday afternoon (Oct. 1).

Penas had a nine-point week (four goals and an assist) as Rider (7-3) split two games, losing at 14th ranked Lafayette 3-1 (September 25) before defeating Lehigh on Sept. 30 by an 8-0 score.

Against the Leopards, Penas prevented the Broncs from being shutout as she scored the only Rider goal in the game. 

Against the Mountain Hawks, Penas scored a hat trick (three goals) and added an assist for a seven-point day as she moved into seventh place on Rider’s all-time scoring list with 105 points (43g, 19a).

This was Penas’ third career hat trick with the two prior ones coming in games against the University of Pennsylvania (Sept. 6, 2010, and Oct. 26, 2011).

Penas has scored in five of the last six games and leads the Broncs with nine goals and 21 points.

Penas leads the NEC and is 14th nationally in goals and 16th in points.

This is the second time this season that Penas has earned NEC Player of the Week honors, having been recognized on Sept. 17.

Penas, a Second Team All-Region and First Team All-NEC honoree, was the 2011 NEC Offensive Player of the Year as a sophomore after earning NEC Rookie of the Year honors in 2010.

Rider hits the road for four straight games, taking on Columbia in New York on Wednesday before opening NEC play at Robert Morris on Sunday.