If a player scores more goals than any of her peers during a given week of conference games, there is a decent chance she is going to pick up some awards.
If no other team in the conference scores more goals than her, well, where do we send the hardware?
After scoring all five Illinois goals in wins against Indiana and Purdue to help the Illini match the program's best-ever start through 10 games, fifth-year senior Jannelle Flaws is espnW's national player of the week.
Flaws began her barrage with a brace in a 2-0 win against the Hoosiers, both goals coming on free kicks from just outside the box. It nonetheless looked like Illinois might fall short of earning eight wins from its first 10 games for just the fourth time as Sunday's game against Purdue ticked toward full time still scoreless. Then Flaws took over, scoring her hat trick in less than nine and a half minutes on a penalty kick and a pair of one-on-one opportunities.
It was a busy few days for the veteran forward, but she's been making up for lost time -- and lost goals -- for more than a year now. With 11 goals so far this season, Flaws has scored 34 in 33 games since the beginning of last season, more than any other player in the nation in that span. She tied St. John's forward Rachel Daly for the national lead a season ago with 23 goals and trails only East Tennessee State's Hannah Short this season.
That's quite a turnaround for a player who scored just three times in her first three years. It wasn't an errant finishing touch that proved her undoing in those early seasons. Rather, it was her body's unwillingness to let her begin. Flaws sat out what would have been her freshman season at Illinois in 2010 because of an ACL injury sustained as a high school senior. After building some small measure of momentum in a reserve role the following season, she again tore her ACL late in the campaign and sat out the entire 2012 season, her third as part of the program.
The second start of her college career came last August, as what was academically her senior year began.
So even as the goals accumulate quickly, they were a long time and a lot of rehab hours coming.
"For me it's kind of kind of just to do what I did last year, just to keep proving myself at the college level," Flaws said before this season of her outlook. "That it wasn't just a one-season wonder, that I can do it again."
The bad news for the Big Ten is there may be more to come. Flaws can apply for a sixth year of eligibility.