Sminkey corrals first career weekly NEWMAC accolade

September 5, 2006

NORTON, MA- Wheaton College field hockey standout Rachel Sminkey (White River Junction, VT/Hartford) was named New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Player of the Week for the week ending on Sunday, September 3. The honor was the first of Sminkey's career and the first by a Lyon since September 8, 2003.

Sminkey surpassed her 2005 goal total (4) and nearly matched her career output (6) through 54 games by netting five markers in two contests for the 2-0 Lyons last week. During Wheaton's 3-2 overtime victory against Salve Regina University on Friday, the senior forward scored midway through the first half to give the Blue and White a 2-0 edge. On Saturday at Regis College, Sminkey tied 19-year-old school records with four goals and eight points. She fired home a pair of goals in each half, scoring on the only four shots she took.

After recording four goals, four assists and 12 points in 18 contests a year ago, Sminkey already has five goals and 10 points as the leader of the league's highest-scoring offense. She sits atop the NEWMAC in both goals and points, and the Lyons pace the conference with 5.87 goals per game, having netted 12 in two contests. Wheaton needed seven games to tally a dozen goals last fall.

Sminkey leads the Lyons into action on Thursday, as Wheaton finishes its season-opening, three-game road swing at Simmons College at 7:00 p.m. The Blue and White hosts Endicott College on Saturday in its home opener on Clark Field at 1:00 p.m.

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