Gabby Russo and Shannon Walisch Sweep Women’s Soccer Player of the Week Awards For UT

ORLANDO, Fla. - Tampa's Gabby Russo and Shannon Walisch have been selected Sunshine State Conference Women's Soccer Players of the Week presented by VALIC.

Russo, a junior midfielder from Middleton, Mass., tallied four goals and two assists over the first weekend of action. Russo scored back-to-back game-winning goals to give the No. 8 Spartans a 2-0 record. She added two assists against Georgia Southwestern State in the second match of the season. In their third game of the opening weekend, Russo netted two more goals in an 11-0 victory over Florida Memorial.

Walisch is the defensive award winner as the senior defender from Palm Harbor, Fla., helped lead the No. 8 Spartans to three-straight shutouts to open the season. Walisch also recorded her first career hat trick against Georgia Southwestern, while also collecting an assist. She added a goal against Florida Memorial to finish the week with nine points in 205 minutes of work on the back line.

For more than half a century, VALIC has served as the leading retirement plan provider for higher education, as well as for K-12 schools and school districts, healthcare, government and other not-for-profit institutions. VALIC has more than $65 billion in total assists under management and manages plans for nearly 25,000 groups serving nearly two million plan participants. VALIC represents The Variable Annuity Life Insurance Company and its subsidiaries, VALIC Financial Advisors, Inc., and VALIC Retirement Services Company.