EVANSTON, Ill. – Fifth-year forward Bente Baekers won Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week following her one-goal, three-assist performances this weekend in wins over Penn and No. 8 Princeton, the conference announced Monday. It marked her second straight week taking home the award and her third win in four weeks this season. She has won the award six times in her career.
Baekers is the first Wildcat to ever win Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week in back-to-back weeks and the first Big Ten student-athlete to do so since Ohio State’s Mackenzie Allessie in the 2020-21 spring season. She is the first Wildcat to win consecutive Big Ten Offensive or Defensive Player of the Week since goalkeeper Maddy Carpenter in 2015. She is the first student-athlete in Big Ten History to win the award in three of the first four weeks of a season.
The Rijswijk, Netherlands native started the weekend with an assist on the equalizer and the go-ahead goal four minutes later in the win over Penn Friday. She followed it with her first two-assist performance of 2022 at No. 8 Princeton Sunday, teeing up the 56th minute equalizer and Alia Marshall’s game-winner in overtime.
Baekers, a three-time All-American, currently leads the nation in goals (13), goals per game (1.62), points (31) and points per game (3.88). She has recorded four more goals and 10 more points than the nation’s next closest in each of those categories. She has collected at least two points in every game this season, and scored a goal in seven straight games to start the year.
As the face of the Northwestern attack, Baekers has led the Wildcats to a perfect 8-0 start, only the second time in history they have reached that mark with the first coming in 1985. Sunday’s win also marked Northwestern’s 12th straight win dating back to last season, tied for the second longest in program history. The 1985 team also holds the longest win streak in program history, winning 14 games in a row.
Northwestern has taken home Big Ten weekly honors all four weeks to start the season with Baekers’ three and goalkeeper Annabel Skubisz’s Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week honors on September 6. It’s the longest such streak since Northwestern won weekly honors in five straight weeks to start the 2019 season.
Baekers and the Wildcats are back in action this weekend to open Big Ten play in Evanston…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Northwestern University Athletics…