For the second time this season, junior Danielle Hernandez (New Fairfield, Conn./New Fairfield) has been named the Northeast Conference (NEC) Player of the Week and freshman Julia Givens (Elverson, Pa./Twin Valley) has been tabbed as the NEC Rookie of the Week for the week of March 27-April 2. The duo first won the same honors for the week of February 27-April 5. In addition, Hernandez, Givens and graduate student Autumn McHenry (Branford, Conn./Branford) have been named NEC Prime Performers.
 
Hernandez registered eight goals and seven assists for 15 points in a 2-0 week for the Red Flash to help the team improve to 6-4 on the year for the team's best start on the year and the third time in team history the squad has won consecutive games in league play. The junior posted four goals and two assists for six points along with four ground balls, a caused turnover and a draw control in a 19-2 win against Howard on Wednesday. She scored a goal in each quarter and added back-to-back assists to extend the Red Flash advantage to 6-0 early in the second quarter. Hernandez then posted a career-best four goals and five assists in a 19-18 win against Stonehill on Saturday. She registered three goals and three assists in the first quarter to help Saint Francis jump out to a 10-2 advantage. She added a goal and an assist in the second quarter to have a hand in eight of the first 12 tallies for the team. before adding an assist in the third quarter. Hernandez dished out five assists to sit one behind the program record held by Autumn McHenry and Katie Schaaf. It was the eighth time in program history a player has dished out five or more assists in a game.
 
It marks the 17th time in program history a player has been named the NEC Player of the Week, while Hernandez becomes the fourth Red Flash player to earn the honor twice in one season, joining Danielle Conwell (2014), Holly Lawrence (2017) and Sydney Davis (2017). Hernandez is also the seventh player to earn the recognition twice in her career after Conwell, Lawrence, Davis, McHenry, Sarah Mahon and Amanda Heidt are also two-time winners.
 
Givens registered a career-high five goals and six points against Stonehill, including scoring the eventual game-winner with 1:13 left in the fourth quarter. The freshman scored twice in the first quarter to help the Red Flash jump out to a 10-2 lead and then added back-to-back scores in the third quarter to extend the lead to 16-11 before scoring Saint Francis' final goal of the day with 1:13 left to give the team a 19-16 margin. She added a ground ball and a caused turnover in the Red Flash's second win in the week. Givens registered her fourth hat trick of the season her first career five-goal performance, besting her four goals and points she posted at Stetson on March 14. She ranks third on the team with 18 goals and three assists for 21 points. The 18 goals tie Schaaf's freshmen mark as the 10th most as a freshman in team history.
 
It marks 15th time in program history a player has been named the top rookie of the week, while Givens becomes the fifth player to earn the distinction at least twice and the fourth member of the 2023 team to hold that distinction. Conwell (2010), Hernandez (2021), Christina Roncarati (East Longmeadow, Mass./Pope Francis) (2022) and fellow freshman Bella Fisher (Duxbury, Mass./Duxbury) are the other multi-weekly winners for Saint Francis. Roncarati established a program record with three NEC Rookie of the Week honors.
 
Saint Francis has won a major award in the five of the six weeks it has been playing this season and have established a new program record with nine major weekly awards in 2023 to surpass last year's mark of seven major weekly awards.
 
Along with Hernandez's two Player of the Week honors and Givens two Rookie of the Week honors, McHenry was named the NEC Player of the Week for the week of February 20-26 and the NEC Defensive Player of the Week for the week of March 6-12. Fisher has been named the NEC Rookie of the Week for the weeks of March 6-12 and March 20-26. The Red Flash made history after Hernandez was named the NEC Player of the Week, Givens was selected as the NEC Rookie of the Week and graduate student Elyssa Enrique (New Canton, Ohio/Hoover) was selected as the NEC Defensive Player of the Week to sweep the honors for the first time in program history for the week of February 27-March 5.
 
McHenry registered seven goals and three assists for 10 points along with 15 draw controls, five ground balls and four caused turnovers in the week. She started her week with three goals and one assist, five draw controls, and a caused turnover against Howard. The graduate student registered the first two tallies of the game to stake the Loretto team out to a 2-0 lead and then added a goal in the second quarter to finish her afternoon with 99 career goals, while adding an assist in the fourth quarter. McHenry then tallied four goals and two assists against Stonehill. She registered two goals and an assist to help the team jump out to a 10-2 lead in the first quarter and then added a goal and an assist in the third quarter before scoring with 2:32 left in the game to give Saint Francis an 18-16 lead. McHenry's milestone day ended with her becoming the third player in program history with 200 draw controls and the sixth player in program history with 100 career goals. She now sits second in assists (69), third in draw controls (206), third in points (171), fourth in caused turnovers (52), sixth in goals (102), eighth in ground balls (93) for her career in program history. The graduate student moved to within seven assists of the program record in the category. McHenry also grabbed 10 draw controls for the second time in her career. She is the fourth player in program history to reach double digits in draw controls in a game and only the second to turn the trick more than once, joining former teammate Emileigh Scott who accomplished the feat nine times in her career.
 
McHenry has earned five NEC Prime Performer recognitions this season, while Fisher, Givens, Hernandez and Kelly Dickson (Blue Bell, Pa./ Wissahickon) have each nabbed two NEC Prime Performer distinctions with Enrique posting one Prime Performer on her resume this season.
           
Saint Francis returns to action on Saturday when the team travels to Merrimack. Game time is 12 p.m.