BATON ROUGE – LSU’s senior goalkeeper Catalina Rubiano was honored by the Southeastern Conference office on Monday morning as the SEC’s Co-Defensive Player of the Week after saving all six shots on target she faced while keeping her fifth clean sheet of the season to help lead the Tigers to a 1-0 road win at Arkansas on Thursday night.
A senior from New Orleans, Rubiano shared the SEC Defensive Player of the Week award with Ole Miss defender Jessica Hiskey with her exceptional performance in goal for the Tigers on Thursday night.
Rubiano turned in a defensive performance that helped the Tigers move back into the qualifying positions for the SEC Tournament as they went on the road brought a 1-0 win back home to Baton Rouge in a game that was played at Razorback Field and televised on the SEC Network. LSU improved to 9-4-3 on the season with a 3-4-1 mark and 10 points in conference play to rank 10th on the SEC table.
Rubiano was outstanding throughout the match as she saved all six shots on goal she faced from the Razorbacks, including a brilliant diving save high and to her right in the first half on a shot from distance that was one for the highlight reel. In fact, her first-half save was featured on ESPN’s SportsCenter as the No. 8 Play of the Day in its Top Plays segment on Thursday night’s episode.
Looks like we’re back in the @SportsCenter Top 10! Catalina Rubiano‘s 1st half save was #8 for Thursday! #SCTop10 pic.twitter.com/1AHA5aMWQc
— LSU Soccer (@LSUSoccer) October 16, 2015
Rubiano’s six saves on the night marked her third-highest save total in a match this season, including a career-high 11 saves at 12th-ranked Florida on Sunday, Oct. 11. She kept her fifth clean sheet of the campaign.
With the win, the Tigers extended their unbeaten streak against Arkansas to 12-straight matches in the series as they have posted an astounding 11-0-1 mark in meetings with the Razorbacks since the 2004 season. It’s a victory that also extended their winning streak at Razorback Field in Fayetteville to seven-straight matches during that span.
This marks the second time this season that an LSU Tiger has been chosen as the SEC Defensive Player of the Week after senior midfielder Natalia Gomez-Junco was also honored with the award back on Sept. 21. With Rubiano’s selection, it is also the ninth time in program history that an LSU player has been recognized as the SEC Defensive Player of the Week.