Senior midfielder Amber Albrecht (Southbury, CT/Joel Barlow HS) was named Women's Soccer Player of the Week by the Colonial Athletic Association and by Big Apple Soccer, it was announced today.

Albrecht shared the Colonial Athletic Association award with Northeastern goalkeeper Mariel Wilner. She won the award outright from Big Apple Soccer, which chooses its winners from Metropolitan New York-area soccer programs in all three divisions. Albrecht had already been honored Big Apple Soccer for the Goal of the Week earlier this season, when her second-half goal gave Hofstra a 1-1 tie with #20 Washington on Aug. 28.

This week, Albrecht led the Pride to a pair of big CAA home wins on Saturday and Sunday, the first time in school history that the program has played on consecutive days. She scored the first goal in a 3-0 win over William & Mary on Saturday in a game that was postponed from Friday evening due to unplayable field conditions caused by heavy rain. She then came back 24 hours later to score the only goal in a 1-0 win over Old Dominion on Sunday.

Both of her game-winning goals on the week also required impressive skill. Her goal against William & Mary came after teammate Marie Curtin (Kilmallock, Ireland) hit the crossbar with a direct kick from 25 yards. The ball took one bounce inside the penalty area, where Albrecht spun and one-timed a half-volley from 12 yards out that rocketed inside the right post. 

The game-winning goal against Old Dominion, by contrast, required her to possess the ball for over 10 seconds while eluding numerous defensive challenges. With the score still tied 0-0 and less than 15 minutes to play, she took a short lateral pass from senior midfielder Chrissy Arnone (Merrick, NY) 35 yards from goal. She beat a pair of Old Dominion defenders to get to the top of the penalty area, where she dribbled to her left towards the corner flag. She then cut sharply back to her right back towards the middle of the penalty area, threading the needle between another pair of Monarch defenders. She faked a shot to elude another defender and took one more dribble to her right to free herself for a 12-yard shot that tucked into the lower-left corner for the dramatic game-winner. 

The two wins helped Hofstra improve to 11-2-1 overall on the season and 7-0 in the Colonial Athletic Association, good for a first place tie with Virginia Commonwealth. The Pride is on a 10-game win streak since a 1-0 overtime loss to Boston University on Sept. 4, the longest winning streak in school history. Albrecht and the other seniors also reached the 50-win plateau with their wins this weekend, three more wins than any previous class in school history.

Albrecht played four years of soccer at Joel Barlow High School in Redding, Conn. She was a two-time All-Connecticut selection and a two-time All-Patriot Division pick. She helped Joel Barlow to two Patriot Division championships and one SWC championship. She now has four goals and four assists this season, and nine goals and six assists for 24 points in her collegiate career.

Hofstra is next in action when it travels on the road to face Georgia State on Friday at 3 p.m. and at UNC Wilmington on Sunday at 11 a.m. Two more wins in those games would guarantee the Pride the chance to play for the regular season championship at home against Virginia Commonwealth on Saturday, Oct. 29.