Varsity Athletics | 9/8/2026 3:47:00 PM

York University Lions soccer players Joanna Abdelmalak and Christian Zeppieri have been named the last York athletes of the week, for the period ending Sept. 6.

Abdelmalak, a third-year midfielder from Richmond Hill, Ont., had her coming out party in York's Sunday afternoon win over the Waterloo Warriors. The kinesiology and health science major opened the scoring in the 15th minute and added an insurance marker in the 74th to make it 3-1 York. The second-year Lion, who transferred from Rider University in Lawrence Township, N.J., prior to the 2025 season, then concluded her afternoon by drawing the lone helper on Sienna Caesar's 83rd-minute marker to cap off a 5-1 victory.

Zeppieri, the three-time defending OUA West MVP and York men's athlete of the year continued his strong play this weekend and led the Lions to a pair of wins over McMaster and Waterloo. He scored twice on penalties in Thursday night's 4-0 Orientation Game win over the Marauders and added the dagger in Sunday's 3-0 wounding of the Warriors. He now sits second in the OUA in goals with four, trailing only his teammate Anthony Morano, who sits at five through the first four games.

The Lions soccer teams return home Friday night to battle the Windsor Lancers for the second and final time this season. Abdelmalak and the women's squad kicks things off at 6:00 p.m., followed by Zeppieri and the men's side taking to the pitch at 8:15 p.m. You can get your tickets to Friday's doubleheader at yorkulions.ca/tickets, or watch the game free of charge on OUA TV.