Viernes Named MWC Player of the Week for Second Time this Season

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- BYU senior midfielder/forward Jeni Viernes has been named the Mountain West Conference Women's Soccer Player of the Week after helping the Cougars wrap up the regular season with victories over Weber State and conference rival Utah. This is her second player of the week honor of the season and third of her career.

Viernes, a Murray, Utah, native, scored two goals off of eight shots on the week (both game-winners). In the Cougars 2-0 victory over Weber State, Viernes knocked in a goal in the fifth minute (assisted by Brooke Bowman) to put BYU up for good. In BYU's 2-1 conference title clinching win over Utah, she scored the game-winning goal in the 64th minute (assisted by Aleisha Cramer-Rose), helping the Cougars capture their fourth straight MWC regular-season crown.

Viernes has been a big part of BYU's 11-game winning streak, either scoring a goal or assisting a goal in 10 of the wins. She finished the regular-season leading the conference in points (27), goals (11), goals per game (0.58) and game-winning goals (six).

The 2002 season has seen three different Cougars receive Player of the Week honors a total of four times. Viernes opened and closed the season receiving the award, junior Aleisha Cramer-Rose was named Player of the Week on Oct. 21 freshman Brooke Bowman grabbed the honor Oct. 28. BYU players have won the award for the last three-consecutive weeks and four out of the 10 weeks of the season.

Mountain West Conference Women's Soccer Players of the Week: Sept. 3 -- Jeni Viernes, Sr., M/F, BYU; Sept. 9 -- Marte Dolva, Jr., F, New Mexico; Sept. 16 -- Julie Herdic, So., F, Utah; Sept. 23 -- Erchen Theys, Jr., M, New Mexico; Sept. 30 -- Annii Magliulo, F, UNLV; Oct. 7 -- Cookie Day, So., M, Air Force; Oct. 14 -- Kristen Winters, So., GK, New Mexico; Oct. 21 -- Aleisha Cramer-Rose, Jr., M/D, BYU; Oct. 28 -- Brooke Bowman, Fr., M, BYU; Nov. 4 -- Jeni Viernes, Sr., M/F, BYU.