March 20, 2018
ROSEMONT, Ill. - Sophomore Maria Auth (Street, Md.) and freshman Lucy Lowe (Cockeysville, Md.) have each been recognized with major weekly awards as announced by the conference office on Tuesday afternoon. Auth was named the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week while Lowe earned Big Ten Freshman of the Week accolades.
Auth earns her first-career weekly honor and becomes the second Nittany Lion this season to earn Big Ten Offensive Player of the week joining senior Katie O'Donnell (West Chester, Pa.) who earned the same recognition just three weeks ago.
Auth registered 12 points to help the Nittany Lions go 2-0 last week. The sophomore recorded a career-best six goals and seven points during a 22-9 victory over Drexel before adding three goals and a pair of assists in an 18-13 win at Rutgers to open Big Ten play on Saturday. Including yesterday's game against Princeton, Auth has now scored 16 goals in her last four games.
The sophomore's 36 points lead Penn State, rank second in the Big Ten and are tied for 26th in the nation while her 30 goals also rank second in the Big Ten behind junior Madison Carter's (Davidsonville, Md.) 33 goals and are good enough for tied 15th nationally.
Lowe also earns her first-career weekly accolade after going 2-0 between the pipes last week. The freshman turned in an 8.41 goals against average and a .607 save percentage during 78:26 of game action throughout the week. Lowe registered a career-best 10 saves over 48:26 minutes in her first Big Ten action securing the 18-13 win against Rutgers on Saturday.
Penn State returns to Big Ten play on Thursday as they host Johns Hopkins at 7 p.m. The game will air live on the Big Ten Network.