Shanks Named CCIW Offensive Player of the Week

Second weekly award in Shanks career

11/2/2021 10:52:00 AM

NAPERVILLE, Ill. - Junior Lauren Shanks (Bloomington, Ill.-Central Catholic) of the Illinois Wesleyan University women's soccer team was tabbed the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin Offensive Player of the Week announced by the conference Tuesday, Nov. 2. Shanks is the third Titan to earn a weekly award after Kayla Borg (McHenry, Ill.-Cary Grove) and Caelyn Steffens (Normal, Ill.-Normal Community) earned their distinctions earlier this season. The Bloomington, Ill. native earned her second player of the week award in her career and was a key player in the Titans' very successful 2-0 week.

IWU played its last two regular season games against Millikin University, Wednesday Oct. 27 and Carthage College Saturday, Oct. 30. The Green and White took wins in both matches, 3-1 and 8-0, respectively.

Shanks played a role in five out of the Titans 11 goals from this past week. The Bloomington, Ill. native kicked off her impressive stat line during the match against Millikin. Shanks assisted the Titans' opening goal 15 minutes into the game to give the Green and White an early 1-0 advantage. The junior took her first point out of a seven-point week with the 3-1 win over the Big Blue.

In an impressive 8-0 victory over the Firebirds Saturday, Oct. 30, Shanks was involved in the first four goals that helped IWU to be named CCIW's Co-Regular Season Champions. Shanks scored the opening and game-winning goal only two minutes into the game. Five and a half minutes later she assisted the Titans' second goal of the day before also assisting IWU's third goal around the 17 minute mark. With her now three assists over two games, Shanks leads the Green and White and the CCIW in assists with eight overall and six in conference play alone, while also setting a career-high in assists (8).

With one goal and two assists already, the junior scored the IWU's fourth goal against Carthage to put the Titans up 4-0, just under 20 minutes into the game. After a 2-0 week, Shanks is tied for second in the CCIW with 14 points alongside fellow Titan forward Izzy Mitra and right behind IWU's Caelyn Steffens in first.

Shanks and the Titans start CCIW Tournament Play Wednesday, Nov. 3 against No. 3 seeded North Central College. The game will kickoff at 7 p.m. at Neis Field.

Print Friendly Version