Dallas, Texas - Panthers' forward Noemi Paquin and goalkeeper Valery Restrepo have been awarded Conference USA's Offensive Player of the Week and Goalkeeper of the Week for the period ending September 29, league officials announced Tuesday afternoon.

Senior Noemi Paquin came into the match off five goals in her previous two matches, and promptly scored two more in FIU's only match of the week against Liberty, who came into the meeting 9-0-2 with the best GAA in the conference. 

Already up 1-0 thanks to a goal by Catherine Rapp early in the contest, the Canadian native Paquin extended the FIU lead to 2-0 after hitting a strike from deep outside the Liberty box at the 41:52 mark. Coming out of the break, the forward added on, scoring her second goal of the match in the 49th minute, off an assist from fellow senior Nikole Solis, to extend the Panthers' lead to 3-0, which would be the final score. Paquin is the leader in the conference in shots (13), shots on goal (10), goals (5) and points (10), through two games of conference play.

Sophomore Valery Restrepo, in just her tenth career collegiate match, racked up a career high six saves in the shutout win over Liberty. Restrepo's shutout was just the second time this season the Flames scored zero goals in a match, with the only other time coming in a draw against UNCG. It is Restrepo's fourth shutout of the season, with ther first three coming againt Florida Atlantic, Jacksonvilee and SEMO.

Prior to the match, Liberty had been scoring 2.5 goals a game and had the second most goals scored in CUSA. This is the second season in a row FIU shut out Liberty, after allowing no goals to the Flames last year in a 0-0 draw at home.

This is the third week in a row Noemi Paquin has earned the CUSA Offensive Player of the Week honors after scoring seven goals in her past three games, the most in CUSA in that time span. The award marks the third for Valery Restrepo as well, previously winning the awards for the periods ending August 25 and September 8.

UP NEXT 

FIU will welcome New Mexico State to the Leyva Family Field at FIU Soccer Stadium for Senior Night on Thursday, October 4 at 7:00 p.m. The game will be broadcasted on ESPN+ with live stats available.

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The 2024 FIU men's and women's soccer season is presented by Baptist Health, the official sports medicine provider of FIU Athletics.

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