Northwestern University Athletics
Photo by: Ryan Kuttler / NUSports.com
Baekers Earns Fifth Career Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week Award
9/12/2022 11:41:00β―AM | Field Hockey
EVANSTON, Ill. β Fifth-year forward Bente BaekersΒ was named Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week following a four-goal, one-assist weekend against No. 11 Liberty and No. 9 Virginia, the conference announced Monday. It marks the second time in three weeks and the fifth time in her career that Baekers has won the award.
Baekers broke open the national championship rematch with Liberty Friday by scoring two goals in the span of 40 seconds late in the third quarter. She followed that with a second straight two-goal performance against Virginia to lead Northwestern to its first top-10 win of the season. She also added her second assist of the season in that game.
TheΒ Rijswijk, Netherlands native has now scored in all six games to start the season, the longest such streak by a Wildcat since at least 1996. It's also the longest streak at any time since Baekers' own personal best when she scored in 11 straight games from the end of the 2020-21 season to the start of the 2021 season.
She leads the nation with 12 goals this season, five more than the next closest player, and ranks No. 1 in the country with 26 points. Averaging two goals per game, Baekers is currently on pace for 36 goals in the regular season, well past her career-high 28 goals in 2019. Chelsea Armstrong holds the Northwestern record for most goals in season with 29 in 2012.
This weekend's games marked Baekers' third and fourth multi-goal performances this season, and sheΒ has now posted 21 such performances in her career.
A Wildcat has taken home Big Ten Weekly Honors every week to start the 2022 season with Baekers' two and goalkeeper Annabel Skubisz's Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week nod last week.
BaekersΒ and the Wildcats hit the road again this weekend with their first game set for Friday against Penn at 2 p.m. CT.
2022 NORTHWESTERN FIELD HOCKEY WEEKLY HONORS
August 30
Baekers broke open the national championship rematch with Liberty Friday by scoring two goals in the span of 40 seconds late in the third quarter. She followed that with a second straight two-goal performance against Virginia to lead Northwestern to its first top-10 win of the season. She also added her second assist of the season in that game.
TheΒ Rijswijk, Netherlands native has now scored in all six games to start the season, the longest such streak by a Wildcat since at least 1996. It's also the longest streak at any time since Baekers' own personal best when she scored in 11 straight games from the end of the 2020-21 season to the start of the 2021 season.
She leads the nation with 12 goals this season, five more than the next closest player, and ranks No. 1 in the country with 26 points. Averaging two goals per game, Baekers is currently on pace for 36 goals in the regular season, well past her career-high 28 goals in 2019. Chelsea Armstrong holds the Northwestern record for most goals in season with 29 in 2012.
This weekend's games marked Baekers' third and fourth multi-goal performances this season, and sheΒ has now posted 21 such performances in her career.
A Wildcat has taken home Big Ten Weekly Honors every week to start the 2022 season with Baekers' two and goalkeeper Annabel Skubisz's Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week nod last week.
BaekersΒ and the Wildcats hit the road again this weekend with their first game set for Friday against Penn at 2 p.m. CT.
2022 NORTHWESTERN FIELD HOCKEY WEEKLY HONORS
August 30
- Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week β Bente Baekers
- Big Ten DefensiveΒ Player of the Week β Annabel Skubisz
- Big Ten OffensiveΒ Player of the Week β Bente Baekers
Players Mentioned
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