Robin Nicholls was instrumental in the Incarnate Word men's soccer team reaching the NCAA Elite Eight while Tamiris Nascimento was key to the women's swimming team pinning a defeat on one of the nation's premier squads and as a result those two were named UIW's athletes of the week for November 12 to November 18.
Each seven-day period during the Incarnate Word athletic year one male and one female are deemed to have had superior performances. In being named the week's best those two individuals automatically go onto the yearend ballot for athletes of the year as voted by Cardinals coaches and administrators.
ROBIN NICHOLLS
The Cardinals won a regional match to advance to the NCAA Division II quarterfinals and to face an old nemesis, Regis University which was ranked number three in the nation. Incarnate Word was 13th. The Cardinals won 1-0 to advance.
Playing out of the midfield, Robin Nicholls was featured on defense as Regis managed but 12 shots total with a mere one of those being on goal. All of that principally was because the Cardinals, and Nicholls, controlled the midfield where attacks are initiated.
In the quarterfinal matchup, UIW and Nicholls went against the second ranked team in the nation, Simon Fraser. The Cardinals came away a 1-0 loser, falling one win short of being in the Final Four.
A high-powered squad, Simon Fraser managed but 11 shots with four of those being on goal including the one that went in during the 81st minute. Again, the Cardinals and Nicholls were stout in the midfield.
A junior from London, England, and Bath University, Nicholls earlier was named first team All-Lone Star Conference. and LSC newcomer of the year.
TAMIRIS NASCIMENTO
The swimming and diving seasons have hardly begun for Incarnate Word and already Tamiris Nascimento has earned her second UIW female athlete of the week award.
This time she was heavily involved in the women Cardinals putting a 32-point loss on Drury University in that school's invitational meet in Missouri. Ranked third in the first national poll of the year, Drury has won three of the last four NCAA Division II championships.
A senior from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Nascimento accounted for 197 points which were 18 per cent of the Cardinals total.
What she did was enter three individual events, all of which she won. She touched first in her specialty the 50-freestyle plus she added wins in the 100 and 200-freestyles.
The Cardinals entered five relay events and she was on all five foursomes of which UIW won three and finished second in the other two.
In the wins she swam second on the 200-free team, first on the 400-free team and then anchored the victorious 200-medley squad. She anchored both the 400-medley and 800-free teams which finished second.
