There’s always a calm before the storm. For women’s soccer the calm was sophomore Lauren Shepherd’s known, but still under the radar performance. Leading up to last weekend’s conference games, Shepherd had zero goals. After both games were in the books, the midfielder now shares Co-Conference USA Offensive Player of the Week honors with Rice’s Shelly Wong.
“Maybe there will be some good goals scored,” Shepherd said about playing against Wong in tonight’s match up.
Scoring the first goal in the Conference USA season for the Mustangs, as well as the winning goal against the University of Texas at El Paso, Shepherd takes over as the Mustang’s leading scorer. A consistent starter for the Mustang’s offense, Shepherd also has 13 shots on goal this season.
“Lauren’s been playing very well because she’s been working hard,” said head coach Brent Erwin. “She works very hard in training, she has a lot of natural ability, she has a good personality and she’s got the personality of a star. If you combine all this with something who works hard then they are going to play well.”
In last Friday’s conference opener, Shepherd blasted a shot just above Colorado College’s goalkeeper into the upper right corner of the goal, preventing another at home shutout. In Sunday’s victory, Shepherd struck again with a lone goal in the second half. Catching a pass from teammate Devon Herrman, Shepherd squeezed through two UTEP defenders, opening up a clear and straight shot into the lower right corner of goal.
With nine games left on the schedule, and the potential to travel into the post season, Shepherd has already tied her goal count from freshman year.
In her first year on the Hilltop, the Dallas native from Lake Highlands High School, played in all 17 games, including 15 starts. In her first collegiate season, Shepherd racked up two goals and three assists against TCU and Houston.
Before becoming a Mustang, Shepherd a psychology major and statistics minor, was the captain of her high school team her senior year, receiving first-team All-District 9-5A honors, and team MVP honors.
“It’s really cool [getting Player of the Week],” Shepherd said. “It’s the first time I’ve gotten it and it was a big surprise. It’s cool to start off the season with this and my first two goals of the season all in the same weekend.”
