Positional
Players of the Year, Scholar-Athletes, and Community Awareness
Honorees Named
The IWLCA has
honored 18 student-athletes for their achievements during the 2011
season, including 12 positional players of the year as well as
three IWLCA Scholar-Athletes and three IWLCA Community Awareness
recipients. The presentations were made at the IWLCA All-American
Banquet, held at the Crown Valley Plaza in King of Prussia, Pa. on
June 11.
The 18
student-athletes include four from Division II national champion
Adelphi, two from Division I national champion Northwestern, and
two each from Washington & Lee, TCNJ, and Maryland.
In addition to the positional Player of the Year awards, the IWLCA
also recognizes student-athletes with the Community Awareness Award
and the Scholar-Athlete designation. One student-athlete is
selected from each division for each of the two honors. The
Community Awareness Award recognizes those student-athletes who
have contributed significantly to their community in a given year.
The Scholar-Athlete award is presented to that student-athlete who
has distinguished herself in particular in both the classroom and
on the playing field.
In Division III, Washington & Lee student-athletes picked up
both the Community Awareness and the Scholar-Athlete Awards as
teammates Kate Donnelly (Community Awareness) and Emmy Mathews
(Scholar-Athlete) were recognized.
Donnelly is the founder and Executive Director of Community
Financial Freedom, a non-profit organization in Lexington, VA that
provides personal finance counseling to low-income community
members and to promote savings among them. She also works for the
Nabors Service League as the General Chair, in which she worked to
connect the university community with the surrounding community
through service projects such as tutoring, food bank volunteering,
issues awareness, service trips and blood drives. Last summer
Donnelly worked as a Finance and Development Intern at Children at
Risk, Houston, TX where she created budgets and business plans for
new projects including New College and Safe House, analyzed
administrative and fundraising expenses to improve efficiency of
organization, and organized and led a two-day strategic planning
session. This past season, she served as a marketing intern at the
Maury River Senior Center where the senior developed marketing
strategies to reach out to rural area senior citizens in need of
resources and assisted in presentations on various health and
living issues to senior citizens.
Mathews, the 2011 ODAC Player of the Year, helped the Generals win
the ODAC tournament and a berth in the 2011 NCAA tournament. A
senior midfielder, Mathews was a four-year starter for both the
lacrosse and field hockey teams and served as a two-time captain of
both teams. The senior graduated magna cum laude (3.9 GPA) with
degrees in Philosophy and Business Administration and completed a
thesis this spring in Philosophy entitled: "Nietzsche's Metaethics:
A Eudaimonistic Theory" to graduate with honors in her Philosophy
major. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, the national academic
honor society (2011) and of Omicron Delta Kappa, the national
leadership society. In addition, she is a member of Beta Gamma
Sigma, the international honor society in business.
TCNJ picked up a pair of player of the year nods after the Lions
entered the NCAA tournament with an undefeated record and advanced
to the NCAA semifinals. Teammates Leigh Mitchell (midfielder) and
Alison Jaeger (attacker) were named Players of the Year at their
respective positions. Mitchell had a record-breaking season for the
Lions, capturing her first All-American honor. She set a
single-season record with 123 points, which included a program mark
68 assists. She is already the program leader in career assists
with 138. Earlier this spring, she was named the 2011 NJAC
Midfielder of the Year and All-NJAC First Team. Mitchell currently
ranks third on TCNJ's all-time scoring list with 296 points.
Jaeger, a three-time IWLCA All-American First Team selection, was
also named the NJAC Attack of the Year for the third straight time
and was named All-NJAC First Team. Jaeger finished her stellar
season with 111 points on 64 goals and 47 assists. Jaeger capped
her outstanding career as the program's all-time leader in goals
(261) and points (364). Jaeger is also one of two players to record
at least 100 assists in their career.
Lily Nguyen from Middlebury was tabbed as the C. Markland Kelly
Goalkeeper of the Year in Division III. Nguyen finished the year
9-5 with a 9.25 GAA and a .510 save percentage in goal for the
Panthers. She started all but one game in goal this season, making
150 saves in 934 minutes. Nguyen made 10 or more saves seven times
this season, including 18 in an April 2nd setback at Colby. The
first-team All-NESCAC selection owns a career GAA of 9.27, with a
17-12 record and a .519 save percentage.
Becky Lutz from Gettysburg helped the Bullets win their first
national lacrosse title, picking up Defender of the Year honors
along the way. A two-time IWLCA All-American, three-time All-Metro
Region First Team selection, and three-time All-Centennial
Conference honoree, Lutz was named the Centennial Conference Player
of the Year.
Adelphi picked up four of the six major awards in Division II,
including Kristin Jones as Scholar-Athlete of the Year, Frankie
Caridi as C. Markland Kelly Goalkeeper of the Year, and Demmianne
Cook repeating as Midfielder of the Year and Claire Petersen taking
home Attacker of the Year honors for the second consecutive year.
Jones helped the Panthers win their third consecutive NCAA title as
a senior defender. The 2011 Division II Elite 88 recipient, she
graduates with a 3.885 GPA as a History/Education major. Jones, a
two time National Champion at Adelphi, was named First Team
All-Northeast 10 this year and was named to the Northeast-10 Spring
All-Academic Team and Dean's List. She was the National Defender of
the Year in 2010. Caridi, a true freshman, earned was tabbed the
NE-10 Goalkeeper of the Year. She was named to the NCAA
All-Tournament team, NE-10 All-Rookie Squad, and First Team
All-Conference. The NE-10 Goalie of the week honors on five
occasions, Caridi also posted a save percentage of .564 and is
undefeated as a collegian at 20-0. Cook, the 2010 Midfielder of the
Year, tallied 57 points on 45 goals and 12 assists in 2011 as
Adelphi won its third consecutive national championship. The
sophomore moved into Adelphi's top-ten in career ground balls with
98. She was also named to the NCAA All-Tournament Team. Petersen
set a NCAA single season record for points in a season (182) and
for assists in a season (125), both of which are all-divisional
records. The NE-10 Player of the Year was Most Outstanding Player
of the NCAA Championships.
Courtney Hancock from Fort Lewis was named the IWLCA Community
Awareness honoree. The junior has been a part of the Big
Brothers/Big Sisters program since 2009. She has been a big sister
to her little sister for all three of those years. She wants to
continue to be a part of her "littles" life even after graduation.
In addition, the Durango, Colo. native has been an active member of
the Riverside Church which is involved in volunteering at an
orphanage in Mexico. This past Thanksgiving (2010) she spent at the
Orphanage. Courtney also was one of the coordinators of the recent
winter trip (February 2011) to the same orphanage.
Katie Zichelli from Lock Haven picks up her second National
Defender of the Year award after also being tabbed as such in 2009.
Zichelli, a four-time All-American and three-time First Team
selection was a huge reason behind Lock Haven's successful year.
She led the nation in caused turnovers and ground balls with 67 and
87, respectively as her defensive presence always had opponents on
edge. In all, she was a four-time All-Region and three-time
All-PSAC player.
In Division I, Nikki Branchini was named the Scholar-Athlete of the
Year. Branchini captained UAlbany to their first NCAA appearance in
school history, as the Great Danes were the only undefeated team
entering the 2011 NCAA tournament. The senior, a second-team IWLCA
All-American in 2011, graduates with a 3.83 GPA as History major
and Education minor. She interned for the Albany County DA's office
this spring and will enter law school in the fall of 2011.
Branchini also won many impressive academic awards, including the
2011 Chancellor's Award for Student Excellence, ECAC Merit Medal as
the school's top senior female student-athlete. The senior was the
America East Co-Player of the Year and was named to the Capital One
District I Women's At-Large Academic All-America Team.
Maggie Kovacs from Oregon picked up the Community Awareness honor.
Maggie is a regular attendee of the O Heroes Wednesdays at the
local Boys and Girls Club. Kovacs also participated in the Susan G.
Komen Race for the Cure 5-K event as a runner and volunteer. She
helped organize her lacrosse team's participation. The sophomore
also helped organize and lead her team to participate with the
local Habitat for Humanity Chapter to help build houses for local
families in need. Additionally, Kovacs and members of her team
built a playground for one of the houses and started a local
university chapter to support Habitat. She was one of two
student-athlete coordinators for Quackin Action, an annual event
that brings 300 children to the athletic facilities and provides an
afternoon of games, fitness, nutrition and safety stations in
groups with student-athletes. Her primary role was recruiting the
student-athlete volunteers. The day of the event we had over 100
student-athletes, one-fifth of the total student-athlete population
at Oregon, there which was largely due to Kovacs' recruitment
efforts. Kovacs participated in the 2011 MLK Day of Service, which
was organized and planned through the campus service learning
program. Considered a "day off," several hundred students including
Maggie and her teammates spent the "day on" by volunteering to help
clean the White Bird Clinic-a local clinic for the homeless and
people in need. Read Across America is the first week of March
every year, and the sophomore has participated the last two years
by going to a local elementary school and reading and spending time
with the children. She also participated in the local Polar Plunge
as a volunteer to benefit the Special Olympics in February of 2011.
The event is a fundraiser and people pay to jump in the river
during the middle of winter. Maggie helped register volunteers and
serve warm beverages when they got out of the water.
Maryland teammates Brittany Dipper and Katie Schwarzmann were named
the C. Markland Kelly Goalie of the Year and the Midfielder of the
Year, respectively. Dipper led the nation with a 6.54 goals against
average, registering a career-high 141 saves. She led a defense
that held 19 consecutive opponents to ten goals or under. An
all-ACC and ACC Championship All-Tournament Team selection, Dipper
tallied 21-2 record in the cage. Schwarzmann, a sophomore, earned
All-ACC honors and was named to both the ACC Championship
All-Tournament Team and the NCAA Championship All-Tournament Team.
A Tewaaraton finalist, she led team in goals with 65, nabbed ACC
Offensive and Defensive Player of the Week honors during the course
of the season, and boasted team-highs in goals, draw controls (45)
and ground balls (38) while helping the nation's top defense to a
6.78 goals against average.
Teammates and national champions Taylor Thornton and Shannon Smith
were named the National Defender of the Year and the National
Attacker of the Year, respectively. Thornton, a sophomore, set
career highs in goals (14), draw controls (49) and ground balls
(38) in 2011. Became one of NU's most reliable defenders down the
stretch. A first-team All-ALC selection, the Dallas, Texas native
was named to all-tournament team for ALC and NCAA Championships and
earned National Player of the Week honors.
Smith capped a stellar junior season, picking up the Tewaaraton
Trophy and the Honda Award as well as IWLCA Player of the Year
honors. The Division I leader in points per game with 5.57, she
ranked fourth nationally in goals per game. The junior set
Northwestern the single-season goals record with 86 and was second
all-time in single-season points (128). Her single-season points
total ranks seventh-best all-time in Division I. The NCAA
Championship MVP, Smith is tied for fifth in career assists at
Northwestern (80), seventh in points (264) and eighth in goals
(184).
Positional Players of the Year
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