AUSTINTOWN, Ohio – For the second time in her career, junior two-time first-team All-Ohio Athletic Conference forward Rachel Bender (Massillon/Jackson) has been named the OAC Women's Soccer Player of the Week.

While the Yellow Jackets went 2-0 on the week with wins over Case Western Reserve University and Bluffton University, all four of Bender's goals this week came in the 5-0 win over Bluffton, doubling her season goal total in just one game and marking a new career high. The junior took 16 total shots and recorded eight points across the two games.

This season, Bender has played in and started all seven games for the Yellow Jackets. In the opening weekend of the season, she was named Most Valuable Player of the Herb Lauffer Memorial Tournament for the second time in her career. She leads the conference in shots taken with 51 and is tied for the OAC lead in assists with four. She is also second in goals with six and in points with 16.

In her three-year career, Bender has appeared in 51 games, starting 49 of them, and tallied 36 goals, 17 assists and 89 points on 238 shots. She was named OAC Player of the Week for the first time in her career on Sept. 6, 2016 and has two first-team All-OAC selections in her first two years on the team.

Bender and the Yellow Jackets will hit the road on Tuesday, Sept. 19, when they travel to Hiram to take on the Terriers of Hiram College in a non-conference game at 7:30 p.m. at the Hiram Soccer Complex.