Last Friday, she was the player with the golden foot. On Monday, she was named Southeastern Conference Co-Offensive Player of the Week.

Now, despite missing four games due to a left hamstring injury, it seems junior forward Alyssa Diggs is back and playing with vigor.

“I feel really good,” Diggs said. “I feel like I can perform. I don’t know if I’m 100 percent back but good enough to perform.”

Over the weekend, Diggs powered the Missouri offense with two goals on Friday in an exciting overtime win against Kentucky. Those two goals gave her six total on the season and a three-way tie for most goals on the team.

Perhaps, without her injury, Diggs would have the most goals on the team.

Diggs started the season with three goals in two games, which led the team, before going down with a hamstring injury in the University of California, Santa Barbara game on Aug. 19. Diggs was flagging a defender when she went down with the injury.

“She’s one of the hardest-working players out there,” sophomore midfielder Abi Raymer said in September. “She’ll be the forward running all the way back down to our defense line to track a player. She does so much. She’s always missed (when she’s not) on the field.”
The recovery of Diggs’ shot has been slow. Her first game back on Sept. 14 against Auburn featured her playing for 49 minutes, which was more than she’d played in a game all season, but her two shots in the game came up empty.

It would take her four more shots in three games to score. In the 49th minute of the Georgia game on Sept. 28, Diggs found the back of the net, which proved to be the winning goal.

After 40 scoreless days, Diggs had her first tally since her injury.

After her second two-goal game of the season on Friday, Diggs was happy to be where she was and was thrilled to win the SEC award.

“It was exciting,” Diggs said. “My teammates texted me and were really encouraging about it.”

Coach Bryan Blitz said he liked what he saw from Diggs after her Kentucky game but felt she still had a ways to go.

“She’s slowly coming back,” Blitz said. “She created more opportunities than she did last week. But she’s probably at 80 percent of where she can be.”

A rehabbed Diggs will be a boost going into the 14th-ranked Tigers’ game against No. 12 Florida on Friday night in Gainesville, senior midfielder Haley Krentz said.

“She played great against (Florida) last year,” Krentz said. “Just having our whole team back together is going to be extremely helpful going on the road and playing such a good team as Florida.”

The Tigers played the Gators last season at home. Like this year, last season both teams were ranked going into the game, with Florida ahead in the rankings.

With the largest crowd of the year behind them, Diggs had a chance to score in the eighth minute, but failed and the Gators rolled away with the win, 2-0.

Friday’s game not only pits two teams that are now in the same conference, but also two teams who hold the lead for the SEC East. Both Florida and Missouri are 7-1 in league play heading into the game.

Missouri has allowed the fewest goals in SEC play with four, while Florida has scored the most goals with 20.

When asked if she looked at this game differently, Diggs shook her head no.

“Coming into the SEC, I think a lot of people were skeptical about how’d we perform,” Diggs said. “This is our chance to prove it. I think everybody’s really excited for the game. (But) the past is the past. Once the game’s over, it’s done. So we’re not thinking about last year. We’re just focused on this game ahead of us.”