Vavic wins Player of the Week award
Junior Nikola Vavic won his second Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Player of the Week award in the last three weeks as he led the top ranked Trojans to the SoCal Tournament title this past weekend. His career high six goals against the sixth ranked University of California Santa Barbara Gauchos in the final sparked the Trojans to a 14-5 win and their ninth SoCal Tournament title in the last ten years.
Over the duration of the tournament, Vavic powered home 14 goals, defeating four ranked teams in the process. In addition to scoring twice in a non-conference game against Princeton before the tournament, he totaled 16 last weekend. The dangerous left-hander now ranks 14th all time on USC’s career goals scored list with 133.
He started off the tournament with four goals against No. 19 St. Francis in the opening game before scoring once against No. 18 Pacific. Vavic then scored a hat trick to lead the Trojans past No. 5 ranked UC Irvine in the semifinals.
Vavic did not let up in the final, putting up another hat trick before the Gauchos even got on the scoreboard. He continued his impressive display as he outscored UC Santa Barbara’s entire team over the course of the game.
The Player of the Week award has been given to a Trojan in three consecutive weeks, after Kostas Genidounias brought it home last week. A matchup against Pac-12 rival Stanford in Palo Alto looms this Saturday at 9 a.m. as the Trojans try to maintain their perfect record and No. 1 ranking.