After starting the season 3-0 (2-0 ACC), the Tigers racked up their first individual accolades of the 2020 season as sophomore midfielder Caroline Conti and junior goalkeeper Hensley Hancuff were named as ACC Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week, respectively. With Conti and Hancuff claiming positional honors, it marks the first time in program history that the Tigers have swept the ACC Players of the Week since the conference began naming both in 2015 and the first time a team has swept the awards outright since North Carolina grabbed both honors on Sept. 18, 2018.
Conti, who tallied two goals and two assists in 2019, kicked off her sophomore campaign with three goals and an assist across the first three games of the season. In the opening weekend of 2020, she recorded an assist on Mariana Speckmaier’s season-opening goal. By just the second game, she opened up her lethal attack, netting two goals against Virginia Tech for her first multi-goal game of her career. The Greenville, S.C. native solidified her ACC Offensive Player of the Week nod by finding the back of the net on a perfectly placed header in the 4th minute against the Cavaliers, marking back-to-back game-winning goals.
Hancuff, a Villanova transfer and former BIG EAST All-Freshman team member, has started her Clemson career with 256 scoreless minutes across her three starts between the posts. The Edmond, Okla. native has recorded nine saves to start the season with a season-high five coming against Virginia. With two solo shutouts and a combined shutout under her belt, Hancuff sits just one shutout away from tying her career-high mark for a single-season.
Collectively, the match against Virginia was the Tigers’ largest margin of victory against the Cavaliers since a 4-0 victory in 2001. Hancuff was the first goalkeeper to shut out the high-powered Virginia offense since Oct. 21, 2018.
With a short break ahead, Clemson will return to the pitch as they face North Carolina (Oct. 1) and Duke (Oct. 4) on the road.
