March 22, 2005

Chicago, Ill. - After leading her team to the title at the 2005 Wolfpack Challenge and garnering tournament MVP honors, UIC junior Nicole Shepard was recognized on Tuesday morning as the Horizon League Softball Player of the Week for the period ending March 21st.

This is the first time in her career that Shepard has been named the league's player of the week while this is the third time this season a UIC player has taken home the award.

Shepard batted a team-high .450 with three doubles, a home run and four RBI over the weekend as the Flames went 7-0.

She highlighted her performance in the Wolfpack Challenge title game as she hit a home run in the bottom of the seventh inning that cut Purdue's lead to 2-1 and then delivered the game-winning single in the bottom of the eighth as the Flames prevailed, 4-3.

For the season, Shepard is now batting .369 with two homers and 11 RBI.

UIC will be back in action this afternoon as they take on Charlotte in doubleheader at 12:00 p.m.