CHICAGO (Sept. 24, 2024) – UIC women's soccer junior forward Riley Collett (Fond du Lac, Wis./Fond du Lac) is the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Week, the league office announced Tuesday afternoon. Collett is the first Flames' women's soccer player to earn the award this season and the fourth UIC student-athlete across all sports to receive a weekly conference honor this year — volleyball players Zahria Woodard and Ayat Amin, as well as golfer Ellie McDonald, have also been recognized by The Valley thus far in 2024.
 
Collett scored both of her team's goals, the first scores of her three-year collegiate career, last Thursday (Sept. 19) as UIC opened MVC play with a convincing 2-0 win over UNI at Flames Field, giving UIC its first win (and first multi-goal result) in six career matches against the Panthers. Collett also became the first multi-goal scorer for UIC this season and the second in as many years, following Sophia Jaime's two-goal outing at Illinois State on Oct. 19, 2023. Coincidentally, Jaime went on to earn MVC Player of the Week honors four days later, the last women's soccer player to be so recognized prior to Collett's award on Tuesday.
 
In last week's win over UNI, Collett put UIC on the board in the 21st minute with a long-range strike from outside the top right corner of the penalty area that buried into the left upper 90. She followed with an insurance goal in the 78th minute, ripping a low shot from the top of the 18 just inside the left post.
 
"Riley has recently been pushing her level at training and was rewarded for those efforts with her performance last Thursday night with those two quality finishes," said UIC head coach David Nikolic. "She was critical to our success with her play on both sides of the ball."
 
Collett and her Flames' teammates open a two-match conference road swing on Thursday with a 3 p.m. (CT) contest at Murray State, leading into a match at Belmont at 1:30 p.m. (CT) Sunday. Both matchups will be televised live on ESPN+.
 
Fans are strongly encouraged to support NIL opportunities for UIC student-athletes through contributions to The Chicago Collective.
 
For more information on UIC women's soccer, fans are encouraged to visit UICFlames.com, or follow the Flames on social media through X (@UIC_WSOC and @UICFlames) and Instagram (@uic_wsoc and @uicflames).