It may have just been the game that Kristin Kowalik was waiting for.

The sophomore forward broke onto the soccer scene last year with a team-leading 26 points and 11 goals, and after Friday’s hat trick performance against Vermont in a 4-1 win, that scoring touch seems to have returned.

She has been named The Northeastern News Player of the Week.

“It was definitely big to get those first three goals,” said Kowalik, whose hat trick was the first of her Husky career. “It felt good to score and get some confidence back in myself.”

Thus far, Kowalik, the America East Rookie of the Year last year, is leading the team with six goals, three assists and 28 shots.

“We’ve been playing good and faced some good teams,” she said. “We can definitely do better, because we started off a little slow.”

The team stands at 7-3-2 with a matchup against Maine coming up next on Friday.

Kowalik’s first three goals came in the season opener against Jacksonville University on Aug. 27 (3-0 win), a 2-1 win over Providence on Sept. 1 and then an unassisted goal over Holy Cross on the Sept. 20.

“I have high expectations for myself,” Kowalik said. “Scoring goals is always nice but it’s a team effort and everyone needs to come together to win.”

Kowalik, a native of Vikingstad, Sweden, came onto the women’s soccer scene with high regard after being a member of the Swedish National Team that competed at the Adidas Cup in 1999.

On top of her Rookie of the Year award, Kowalik was named to the All-Rookie team and All-Conference second team last year.

She was second in scoring in the league, starting in all 19 games of her freshman season.

Her goals came in abundance as her goals per game average (0.58) was second in the conference, while her points average (1.37) was third overall.

–Staff Writer Jeff Powalisz