Another accolade has come for senior women’s soccer goalkeeper Melanie Escobar, who has won the New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference player of the week for the second time in her collegiate career.

Escobar helped the Lions climb to a 2-1 record from September 20th to the 24th, during which she had a four save performance against Mount Holyoke College in the team’s 2-1 win. The victory gave Emerson’s women’s soccer their first NEWMAC win this year.

Throughout the award-winning week, Escobar had saved a total of 14 shots out of 18 attempts on goal, and played the entirety of the three games.

Escobar started playing competitively late in junior high school when she was asked to play for the Academica Football Club after a showing at a local soccer camp.

In her freshman year, she was recruited to Cheshire Academy and received a scholarship to play in high school.

Interested in writing, she went college hunting to find what school would fit her best. She was told about Emerson through her advisor.

“She mentioned that [Emerson] had a Division III program for soccer,” Escobar, a junior journalism major, said. “It seemed like the exact fit that I wanted because it was in an urban area and I knew that I wanted to be in Boston.”

Escobar knew that her future playing soccer in college looked bleak and didn’t plan on playing until Emerson’s program convinced her otherwise.

“I thought that I wasn’t going to play in college because of the other schools I was applying to,” Escobar said. “But once I found Emerson, I said, ‘if I get accepted into Emerson that’s the only school I am going to play for.’”

Escobar was accepted into Emerson and knew right away that she made the right decision academically, as well as for athletics.

“I really liked the coach and what he had to offer,” Escobar said. “I went on a recruit trip here and I loved the teammates and everything about it when I came here for my recruit night, and I knew that this was the only school that I was going to play for. Everything just worked out magically I guess so I was really lucky.”

Fast forward to her senior year of college, and in spite of receiving an individual accolade, she stressed that it is still a team effort.

“I feel like this season, and me receiving this award this time, is very different because I feel like it was more of a team effort,” Escobar said. “I think that this honor this time should be recognized for more than just me, I think a lot of the defense and the whole team in general should have been acknowledged.”

Emerson (6-6, 1-2) will be playing away on Oct. 8 against Smith College (7-1-4, 1-1-2).