NJCU senior center midfielder Mallensy Vargas is the NJCU Women’s Athlete of the Week for the ninth time in her career and earned New Jersey Athletic Conference Offensive Player of the Week honors for the fifth time in three years. She later was named the United Soccer Coaches NCAA Division III National Player of the Week—the first NJCU women’s player to ever receive the award.
Vargas had one of the greatest individual scoring weeks in the history of NCAA Division III soccer, producing an unthinkable 29 points on 12 goals and five assists in a four-game span. The four-game stretch, which would be an amazing season’s worth of scoring for most players, is believed to be the most points in the same calendar week in NCAA Division III history. She is the current 2019 NCAA leader in goals and points in every division (I, II or III), male or female.
In a week in which NJCU went 4-0-0 to improve to 5-2-0 on the year, Vargas was involved in every NJCU goal in the final three games of the week, either scoring or assisting the last 13 consecutive NJCU goals and of the 18 goals NJCU scored in four games this week, Vargas contributed to 17 of them. She registered three consecutive hat tricks—her seventh, eighth and ninth of her career— during the week and four braces and has now tallied five consecutive braces dating to the first week of the season. Vargas scored three consecutive game-winning goals and now has 12 for her career. She has 14 goals and five assists for 33 points in six games this year and 125 points in her career (54 goals, 17 assists).
The three-time All-NJAC standout led NJCU to a 5-2 home win over previously unbeaten College of Mount Saint Vincent on September 10, scoring three goals with one assist for seven points in the first half. She only attempted four shots, putting three on goal and into the goal. She did not play in the second half.
24 hours later on September 11, she helped NJCU hand Cedar Crest its second loss of the season, notching an incredible nine points on a career-high four goals and one assist in 83 minutes. She was responsible for 10 shots, with six on goal in the road win.
On September 14 in a 6-3 road win at Penn State Brandywine, Vargas was busy in just 68 minutes of action, recording another nine-point effort with three goals and three assists. Of her seven shots, three were on goal.
Finally, on September 15 in a 2-1 win at Lehman, she scored both of NJCU’s goals. She had a first-half Goal Olimpico—curling a corner kick untouched into the net before adding the eventual winner in the 63rd minute.
