Oct. 17, 2011
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Sophomore striker Taylor Schram (Canonsburg, Pa.) was named player of the week by TopDrawerSoccer.com and the Big Ten Conference on Monday, while redshirt-freshman Emily Hurd (Sammamish, Wash.) captured her first Big Ten laurel. Sophomore forward Maya Hayes (West Orange, N.J.) also tallied an honor by TopDrawerSoccer.com
Schram's four-goal, one-assist weekend for nine points earned her National Player of the Week by the TopDrawerSoccer.com as well as Offensive Player of the Week by the Big Ten. Schram scored twice and assisted on another goal against Nebraska in a 5-4 win this past Friday before adding two more goals to her ledger on Sunday in a 4-0 victory over Iowa. The weekly awards are the first for Schram in each category. She was previously named Freshman of the Week on Nov. 8, 2010.
Hurd was nearly as instrumental in the offensive attack as Schram, scoring a goal against Nebraska on Friday and supplying two assists against Iowa. Hurd's goal against the Huskers was her fourth of the season and she enjoyed her first two-assist day against Hawkeyes, helping on the first two goals of the match.
The national leader in goals and points, Hayes scored three times and added two assists in an eight-point weekend to earn a spot on the TopDrawerSoccer.com Team of the Week alongside Schram. Against Nebraska, Hayes scored less than three minutes into the match and assisted on another goal in the first half for a three-point night. Hayes then tallied the game-winner against Iowa, adding another goal and another assist en route to a five-point morning. The sophomore sensation is having the finest individual performance by a Penn State player since 2005 when Tiffany Weimer scored 69 points behind 32 goals and five assists.
Hayes matched Weimer's sophomore record of 21 goals in a season by a PSU player and is two points off of Weimer's point record of 51 from that same 2003 season. The eighth game-winning goal by Hayes came against Iowa on Sunday, a new PSU sophomore record. On the single-season charts, Hayes is tied for third in game-winning goals, fifth for goals and sixth for points (49).
The Nittany Lions return to action on Friday against Michigan State at 3:00 p.m. Penn State caps its regular season away schedule at Michigan on Sunday for a televised Big Ten Network game set for Noon.
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--NITTANY LIONS--