SEGUIN, Texas — After posting her first career hat trick in the victory over Howard Payne, Natalia Cortez (Edinburg/Robert Vela) has been named the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) Offensive Player of the Week, the conference announced Monday.
Cortez started the week by dishing out her first assist on Thursday in the Bulldogs 3-1 win over East Texas Baptist before her career-night against the Yellow Jackets on Saturday.
Cortez got things started in the first half against the Yellow Jackets, controlling a throw in from Makenzie Ivie (Portland/Gregory-Portland) to scream one past the Yellow Jackets keeper in the 30th minute to give TLU a 1-0 lead.
In the 62nd minute, Cortez converted a penalty kick to extend the TLU lead to 3-0. The made penalty kick was her second of the season and third for the Bulldogs this season. Just one minute later, the Edinburg native struck again, this time off a rebounded save off a shot from Aliyah Fonseca (Harlingen/Harlingen South) that found Cortez at the right place at the right time.
The Edinburg, Texas, native now has six career game winners, moving into sixth in program history. The hat trick is the 29th in program history and the first since Alyssa Simien had two in 2024. The senior earned her fourth, fifth, and sixth goals for the season in the win over Howard Payne.
Cortez ranks fourth nationally in game-winning goals (3) and 11th in shots on-goal per game (3.17).
Up next, Texas Lutheran continues its nine-game homestand on Wednesday. Sept. 23, against Hardin-Simmons at 7 PM. The match will be streamed on FloCollege. All streaming and live stats links will be available on tlubulldogs.com.
For all updates on Texas Lutheran Women’s Soccer, follow @tluwsoc on X (Twitter) and Instagram and as always you can find updates on all Texas Lutheran athletics on tlubulldogs.com and all official TLU social media channels (@tluathletics on X (Twitter), @tlu_athletics on Instagram, and @tlubulldogs on Facebook).