SEGUIN, Texas -- Texas Lutheran's Noelani Ajel (Cibolo/Steele) has been named the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC), the conference office announced on Monday.

Ajel becomes TLU's fourth different Defensive Player of the Week honoree of the season, joining Monica Sitachitta, Alysa Marquez, and Lilly Noblett. It is the third SCAC weekly award for Ajel, winning the award once every season of her career thus far.

The Cibolo native played a pivotal role in locking down opposing offenses for the entirety of Texas Lutheran's clean weekend that saw them outscore opponents 5-0 for the seventh and eighth clean sheets for the Bulldogs in 14 matches this season.

Logging all 90 minutes of Friday's match against St. Thomas, Ajel and the TLU backline held the Celts outside of the 18-yard box for nearly the entirety of Friday's action, allowing just three shots and one shot on goal. Sunday was more of the same as Ajel played in 70 minutes of the Bulldogs shut out as the TLU defense only allowed two shots with none coming on target.

Since Ajel arrived as a freshman in 2024, Texas Lutheran has racked up 24 shutouts with Ajel becoming the first SCAC Defensive Player of the Year in program last season.

Up next, TLU travels to Conway, Arkansas, to face Hendrix on Friday, Oct. 23 at 7:30 PM. The match will be streamed on FloCollege. All streaming and live stats links will be available on tlubulldogs.com.

For all updates on Texas Lutheran Women's Soccer, follow @tluwsoc on X (Twitter) and Instagram and as always you can find updates on all Texas Lutheran athletics on tlubulldogs.com and all official TLU social media channels (@tluathletics on X (Twitter), @tlu_athletics on Instagram, and @tlubulldogs on Facebook).