America East honors for New Englanders

Kaplan, Villa named Players of the Week

September 30, 2008

The America East conference announced Monday that Shaunna Kaplan, a junior forward on the University of New Hampshire women’s soccer team, has been named America East women’s soccer Player of the Week for the week ending Sept. 28.

Shaunna Kaplan

UNH's Shaunna Kaplan was named the America East Player of the Week. (UNH Athletics)

Kaplan tallied two goals and an assist over the course of the week to set a new personal career high for points in a season (10). Kaplan broke a 2-2 tie in the 79th minute to lift the Wildcats to a 3-2 win in their conference opener at Binghamton on Sept. 28.

Kaplan also collected an assist on UNH’s first goal of the game and scored the Wildcats’ lone goal against Dartmouth on Sept. 25, knotting the game in the 14th minute.

The University of Hartford’s Carlos Villa, meanwhile, earned Player of the Week honors for the men.

In the opening game of the UMass Classic on Friday, Villa netted the game-winning goal 28 seconds into a second overtime period to give the Hawks a 1-0 win over Massachusetts, an NCAA Final Four participant last season.

The goal was the junior forward’s ninth goal in his ninth game of the season.

Villa enters the week second in the country in goals per game (1.14) and fourth in points per game (2.43).