Her season has been remarkably consistent, which is always what you want from your best players. This marked the 10th out of her last 11 games where she has shot 50% or better.

The last two games really stand out though because of the opponent. Notre Dame is the 3rd rated opp-adjusted defense in the entire country. And she still put up 10 goals on 19 shots, plus 2 assists and just a single turnover across the two Eagles’ wins.

Probably more impressive is that all 7 goals were unassisted. I’ll say it again, healthy offenses need players who can make their own offense. She provided that in this one.

It’s all the more remarkable given that her previous high this year was 3 goals. So excuse me if I’m surprised by a somewhat out-of-nowhere 10 point day.

In her 2nd season, Dirks has become a force for PSU. Turnovers, shooting percentage, assist rate, excess goals. Pick a category and she’s head and shoulders above where she was as freshman.

She didn’t have the same numbers in this one, but this was actually the game where the Eagles had the higher offensive efficiency marks. So, you know, fair trade.

And in this one, she had about as good a game as you’ll see in terms of efficiency. 6 goals on 8 shots, plus the 3 helpers and 0 turnovers.

But let’s celebrate the 7-point outing before we get all dour. After all, this is the player with this 5th highest per-game EGA average of anyone in the country. You start to wonder if that is part of what happened in game #2; all the production this year could mean that we are starting to see some tired legs.

Her 16% play share puts here squarely in the top percentile of any player nation-wide.

Will be curious to see if her trend of more chances continues the rest of the year.

I love to see careers like she has put together so far. Just steady improvement in every facet of the game. 2021 marks her best eGoals/shot season, her most goals/g, her lowest turnover rate and of course, her highest EGA/game season.