REDLANDS, Calif. – The 2022 All-Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) women's lacrosse awards were announced Tuesday morning following a vote conducted by the league's member head coaches. 

Along with the three Bulldogs who were named All-SCIAC (Celine Flaig, Sydney Louie, Kaitlyn Lesko), senior Erika Lopez (Los Angeles, CA) was also recognized being the recipient of the SCIAC Women's Lacrosse Character Award. 

Erika was involved with Orale, which is a community/club consisting of Latinos and first-generation students on the University of Redlands campus. She was involved in hosting meetings and events centered around sharing and embracing Latino culture, history, and contributions made by Latino figures and community members. Erika was also an active member of a mentoring program called REACH that helped mentor and tutor students in the San Bernardino County area. She built connections with at-risk and system-involved youth where all involved could learn and have fun.

Through building these connections she was able to encourage students to embrace their studies and their future. During the past two years of COVID, Erika committed her time to volunteer coaching for underprivileged and marginalized students. During this time, she developed a plan to host lacrosse clinics in Mexico and with orphanages in Tijuana. She will also continue to recover from her ACL injury sustained in 2021 as she has been invited to try out for the Mexican National Team.  In addition, Erika has brought heightened attention to the importance of DEI and Access to the Redlands Lacrosse program. Through this work, she and six other student-athletes created the women's lacrosse DEI statement which will be translated in multiple languages to connect with as many cultures as possible.