Owls Dominate Regular Season Women's Soccer Awards
MACON, Ga. – Kennesaw State again dominated in women’s soccer on the field winning 10 of their 11 A-Sun matches. Their team success translated into individual success as the Owls collected a plethora of regular season awards, including senior forward Annie Phillips winning the Player of the Year award, the Atlantic Sun Conference office announced on Tuesday.
All told, seven Owls made either the First or Second Team All-Atlantic Sun squads and added two more to the All-Freshman team. Phillips’ forward teammate, junior Caitlin Dingle, along with midfielders Maylee Attin-Johnson and Sara Clapham earned First-Team honors. Midfielder Beth Meadors and defenders Jessica Kalonji and Bridget Gaughan made the second team.
Phillips followed ex-teammate Laura Tucker as the Player of the Year recipients. Tucker won the award in 2006 marking the first time in 15-year history of women’s soccer in the Atlantic Sun that two different players from the same school won back-to-back Player of the Year awards. Phillips tied for the league lead in goals with 16 and points with 37, one year after scoring six goals and totaling 13 points. She added a conference-best six game-winning goals.
Mercer, the regular-season runner-up to Kennesaw State, earned its fair share of honors. Head coach Grant Serafy won the Atlantic Sun Coach of the Year award after leading the Bears to a school-record 11 wins. The Bears reeled off nine straight victories during conference play and earned their first bye in the Atlantic Sun Championship since the field expanded to six teams in 1997.
Mercer’s freshman defender Kacie Hudson also earned a pair of honors in being named to the All-Freshman team and the First-Team All-Atlantic Sun lineup. Hudson owns the di
stinction as being the lone freshman on the First-Team. As a defender, she led the Bears with five goals and 12 points. She scored four game-winners out of her five tallies.
Despite Hudson earning First-Team honors, the Freshman of the Year award went to Florida Gulf Coast forward Lindsay Haw. In her first collegiate game, Haw scored seven points (two goals, three assists) and continued her stellar play throughout the rest of the season, finishing with 11 goals and 28 points. She ranked in the top five in the Atlantic Sun in goals (fourth), assists (tied for third), points (fourth) and game-winning goals (fourth). Haw and defender Kathleen Hunter made the All-Freshman team from the first-year Division I program. Hunter also made the Second-Team All-Atlantic Sun team and sophomore midfielder Amber McCall earned First-Team accolades.
In their fifth year in the Atlantic Sun, Lipscomb finally broke through for a conference win and also broke through on the individual side as junior goalkeeper Katie Shelton won the league’s Defensive Player of the Year award and made the First-Team All-Atlantic Sun squad, marking the first time a Lady Bison won an individual award. Shelton led the A-Sun in saves (156), saves per game (8.21) and finished fifth in shutouts with four. She currently ranks fifth in the NCAA in saves and sixth in saves per game.
Lipscomb enjoyed a historic season in 2007. The Lady Bisons ended a 19-game losing streak in September, won back-to-back games for the first time since October 2002 and won their first- and second-ever Atlantic Sun matches in this, their fifth year in the conference. Their first A-Sun win, a 1-0 decision against USC Upstate, ended a drought in which the Lady Bisons went 0-38-3 in A-Sun play.
Jacksonville’s junior forward Keri Zwikker joined the Kennesaw State duo on the First-Team at the forward position. She matched Phillips’ goal and point total in earning First-Team honors for the third straight year. Stetson defender K
elsey Kramer and Kennesaw State’s Clapham each earned First-Team honors for the second straight season.
The Atlantic Sun Conference is a 12-member league committed to Building Winners for Life, with a focus on academic and athletic integrity and a balance between the two for the student-athlete, and maintaining a high level of sportsmanship. Headquartered in Macon, Ga., the A-Sun encompasses six of the top eight media markets in the Southeast. The A-Sun consists of some of the most dynamic private and public institutions in the region: Belmont University, Campbell University, East Tennessee State University, Florida Gulf Coast University, Gardner-Webb University, Jacksonville University, Kennesaw State University, Lipscomb University, Mercer University, University of North Florida, University of South Carolina Upstate and Stetson University.