WNL Player of the Month award for Mayo native Rachel Kearns

Galway WFC's Rachel Kearns, a native of Crossmolina, has picked up the first SSE Airtricity Women's National League Player of the Month award this season.

Kearns netted a hat trick in the season opener against Cork City before scoring three more goals in the games against Bohemians, DLR Waves and Treaty United.

She leads the goalscoring charts and has been outstanding in her overall play.

Reacting to her award, Kearns said: “I'm currently number one in the Golden Boot race but at the start of the year it wasn't even a goal. I was just going out to see how I got on. I didn't put any pressure on myself; I was just going out to enjoy myself and play.

“But in the first game I happened to get a hat trick so that got off to a good start and I was leading from the start. Then I got a goal in every game since I've played.

“It's great to be number one but some of the girls are catching up now, like Ellen Molloy is coming up now in second place. She will put it up to me. Hopefully when I get back (from injury), I'll try and score a few more goals and see how it goes.”

Leanne Sheill, marketing manager at sponsors SSE Airtricity, commented: “Congratulations to Rachel on a fantastic start to the season. We are delighted to announce Rachel as the winner of the first SSE Airtricity Women’s National League Player of the Month award.

“The commitment and quality shown by all players so far this season is a joy to watch and Rachel has really shown her excellence in front of goal to lead the top goalscorer chart.

“This is our first year as proud sponsor of the SSE Airtricity Women’s National League and we look forward to announcing many more Player of the Month award winners this season.”

That sponsporship from SSE Airticity has been a boon, Rachel said. “It's great that SSE Airtricity came on board this year,” she said. “They were the men's main sponsor so it was great that they came on with the women's side of things as well.

“The publicity is great. They are on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook. Everyone knows what every team is doing with the scores and all of the games ahead, so it's brilliant that they are on board and they are doing a really good job.”

Aoife Horgan of Limerick-based Treaty United and Ellen Molloy of Wexford Youths finished second and third respectively in the voting process.