A&M-Victoria’s Noriega claims RRAC Defensive Player of the Week honor

WACO, Texas – After a strong showing between the posts, Texas A&M University-Victoria's Jamie Noriega is getting recognition.

On Tuesday, the Red River Athletic Conference announced the junior shot-stopper as its Women's Soccer Defensive Player of the Week.

The Dickinson native made 12 saves between two matches to help the Jaguars to an unbeaten 1-0-1 mark last week. This is the first time a Jaguar has been honored with Defensive Player of the Week honors this season and first since Hayli Nichols won the award on Sept. 9 last season.

"I'm so thankful and excited to be named this week's Defensive Player of the Week," Noriega said. "It feels great to be recognized for the work I do, but I think, defensively, we work as a team. For that, I'd like to thank my teammates for doing their part and executing on the field."

Noriega opened the week with a season-high five saves in a 1-1 draw with Nelson University on Friday. The Trinity Valley Community College transfer followed that with seven saves in the team's first win of the season, a 1-0 result against NCAA Division III McMurry University on Sunday.

Through the team's first three games, Noriega has made 15 saves which is good for fourth in the RRAC. Her save percentage of .750 and goals allowed average of 1.33 rank third in the conference.

"The entire team is really proud of Jamie's performance this week," said head coach Kimberly Uetrecht. "We challenged her to take charge of her box and she delivered exactly what we needed."

The Jaguars (1-1-1) are at home this week to face Texas Wesleyan on Thursday and Concordia University-Texas on Saturday.