Rick Collins, a member of the Mount Vernon Nazarene College men's soccer team has been selected as the American Mideast Conference Men's Soccer Player of the Week for his performance during the week of September 6-12.
Collins, a junior midfielder from Pataskala, Ohio, led the Cougars to a 2-0 week as the team captured the 1999 Pizza Hut Cougar Invitational title. In the first match of the tournament against Huntington (IN) College, the former Watkins Memorial High School standout netted the first two goals of the match and later added an assist in a 9-0 victory.
Collins followed that performance up by scoring the first goal in the championship match, a 4-0 win over Trinity Christian (IL) College. He also added an assist as he was selected as the tournament's Most Valuable Player with three goals and two assists.
For the season, Collins has scored three goals and leads the team with five assists. He ranks third in the AMC in assists per match (.83), fifth in points per match (1.83), and tenth in goals per match (.50).
MVNC is off to a school record-tying 6-1 start in 1999, and the Cougars are ranked #28 in the latest NAIA national poll that was released on Tuesday afternoon. The team will look to top the start of last year's 19-8 team when MVNC will host Shawnee State University in the team's AMC opener at Cougar Field on Saturday at 2:00 p.m.
