TSC Announces Women’s Soccer All-Conference Team
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The Sun Conference honored 33 individuals representing five teams when the women’s soccer All-Conference awards were announced on Thursday evening. Divisional winners Embry-Riddle (South) and Northwood (North) led all teams with six All-Conference honorees each, while St. Thomas and Thomas each had four individuals represented on the All-Conference roster.
Sharing the league’s Player of the Year honors were Northwood’s Helen Lynskey and St Thomas’ Sara Mira. A senior from Rotterham, United Kingdom, Lynskey will cap her career as the only four-time Player of the Year in conference history. In her final season with the Seahawks, Lynskey has 18 goals and eight assists for a total of 44 points. Northwood won The Sun Conference regular season title and is currently ranked second in the national coaches’ poll.
Mira (Pembroke Pines, Fla.) is the first St. Thomas player to be named Player of the Year since her head coach Michelle Smith won the honor as a senior on the Bobcat roster in 1999. Mira is also playing her final year of collegiate soccer and has 24 goals and leads the conference in assists (13) for a total of 61 points .
Now in her eighth season as the head coach of the St. Thomas squad, Smith was tabbed as the league’s Coach of the Year. Under Smith’s guidance, the Bobcats finished second in the South Division at 8-1. STU is 15-1-1 overall and is ranked 11th in the NAIA National Coaches’ poll.
SCAD Savannah’s Laerke Michaelsen (Hasselager, Denmark) was selected as the Newcomer of the Year. A junior transfer from Lindsey Wilson, Michaelsen had 11 goals and four assists on the year to help the Bees to a 10-8 overall record. SCAD Head Coach Andy Williamson touted Michaelsen as the Bees’ best player and credited her with being the catalyst behind SCAD recording their highest single-season goal-scoring total since 2008.
The Champions of Character Award went to Carina Spengler, a senior on the Thomas Night Hawks team. Spengler led Thomas (11-7) in scoring with 18 goals and currently ranks 23rd in the NAIA in total goals. In addition to being the Night Hawks’ offensive leader, Spengler has carries a 4.0 cumulative grade point average in Business Administration.
“Carina has played for the three different coaches in her career at Thomas and is no doubt the leader of this team,” Spengler’s head coach Julie Orlowski stated. “She has led this team through a great deal of adversity and is having her best year this season.”
The league also announced the Academic All-Conference team on Thursday ,which included 60 women’s soccer student-athletes. Spengler and SCAD’s Sydney Benda, a junior majoring in Fashion, hold the distinction of being the only two individuals on the 2013 women’s soccer Academic All-Conference roster with a perfect 4.0 grade point average.
Members of the All-Conference team will be action on Friday as play in the 2013 conference tournament concludes. No. 2 seed St. Thomas will take on top seed Embry-Riddle at 7:30 p.m. at the Embry-Riddle Soccer Stadiu.
FIRST TEAM
Goalkeeper
Matilda Ojaniemi, Northwood (1102 min, 29 sv, 1.06 gaa)
Defenders
Sofia Bonilla, SCAD Savannah (1 g, 3 a, 5 pts)
Rebekka Gisladottir, Embry-Riddle (1 g, 0 a, 2 pts)
Tova Torstensson, Embry-Riddle (0 g, 2 a, 2 pts)
Courtney Trujillo, St. Thomas (6 g, 2 a, 14 pts)
Midfielders
Louise Andersson, Northwood (9 g, 3 a, 21 pts)
Martine Olsen, Embry-Riddle (14 g, 11 a, 28 pts)
Carina Spengler, Thomas (15 g, 1 a, 31 pts)
Amanda Trujillo, St. Thomas (7 g, 4 a, 18 pts)
Forwards
Helen Lynskey, Northwood (18 g, 8 a, 44 pts)
Sara Mira, St. Thomas (22 g, 11 a, 55 pts)
Valerie Obita, Embry-Riddle (16 g, 8 a, 40 pts)
Melony Poviones, St. Thomas (21 g, 8 a, 50 pts)
SECOND TEAM
Goalkeeper
Olivia Lynch, Embry-Riddle (1199 min, 45 sv, 0.63 GAA)
Defenders
Kasey Cooper, Thomas (1 g, 1 a, 3 pts)
Adrianna Johnson, Thomas (1 g, 9 a, 11 pts)
Filippa Lindman, Northwood (0 g, 6 a, 6 pts)
Midfielder
Eliza Balen, SCAD Savannah (5 g, 3 a, 13 pts)
Katherine Ebbs, Embry-Riddle (4 g, 8 a, 16 pts)
Linnea Lindmark, Northwood (7 g, 7 a, 21 pts)
Forwards
Johanna Engberg, Northwood (14 g, 8 a, 36 pts)
Emma Hewett, Thomas (11 g, 6 a, 28 pts)
Laerke Michaelsen, SCAD Savannah (11 g, 4 a, 26 pts)
Honorable Mention
Goalkeeper
Ariana Lorenzo, St. Thomas (1330 min, 27 sv, .88 gaa)
Defenders
Janina Helwig, Embry-Riddle (1 g, 1 a, 3 pts)
Emelie Johansson, St. Thomas (0 g, 2 a, 2 pts)
Maria Tornqvist, Northwood (0 g, 2 a, 2 pts)
Midfielders
Hannah Claesson, Thomas (3 g, 2 a, 8 pts)
Zelda Jagryd, St. Thomas (4 g, 1 a, 9 pts)
Gudrun Marie Johnson, Embry-Riddle (1 g, 4 a, 6 pts)
Forwards
Andrea Froeshaug, Embry-Riddle (5 g, 0 a, 10 pts)
Jenny Hernandez, Thomas (7 g, 7 a, 21 pts)
Nicole Wittak, SCAD Savannah (14 g, 3 a, 31 pts)
PLAYERS OF THE YEAR
Helen Lynskey, Northwood
Sara Mira, St. Thomas
NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR
Laerke Michaelsen, SCAD Savannah
COACH OF THE YEAR
Michelle Smith, St. Thomas
CHAMPIONS OF CHARACTER AWARD
Carina Spengler, Thomas
ACADEMIC All-CONFERENCE
Caitlin Tweedie, Ave Maria*
Catherine Popik, Ave Maria
Louise Andersson, Northwood
Hannah Lindstrom, Northwood
Linnea Lindmark, Northwood
Sofia Kristensson, Northwood
Johanna Markstrom, Northwood*
Maria Tornqvist, Northwood*
Martine Olsen, Embry-Riddle*
Olivia Lynch, Embry-Riddle
Janina Helwig, Embry-Riddle
Katherine Ebbs, Embry-Riddle
Ana Patrizzi, Florida Memorial*
Marcela Fajth, Florida Memorial
Ayat EI-Zein, Florida Memorial
Josymar Travieso, Florida Memorial*
Desiee Quadros, Florida Memorial*
Amanda Torres, Florida Memorial
Suzy Duffy, Johnson & Wales
Aurora Lian Daccah, Johnson & Wales
Cailyn Rizzo, Johnson & Wales
Emma Vezza, Johnson & Wales
Sarah Waters, Johnson & Wales
Alison Radford, Johnson & Wales
Eliza Balen, SCAD Savannah*
Sydney Benda, SCAD Savannah*
Sofia Bonilla, SCAD Savannah*
Nicolette Capizzo, SCAD Savannah*
Alyssa Drennen, SCAD Savannah*
Ryanne Frazier, SCAD Savannah*
Anna Genova, SCAD Savannah
Sara Hall, SCAD Savannah
Janelle Morgan, SCAD Savannah
McKenzie Nelson, SCAD Savannah*
Hannah Pappa, SCAD Savannah*
Holly Potts, SCAD Savannah*
Ciara Thomas, SCAD Savannah
Rachel Walker, SCAD Savannah
Alexandra Weinberg, SCAD Savannah*
Claire Kennedy, South Carolina Beaufort
Sam Satterlee, South Carolina Beaufort
Jessica Tooley, South Carolina Beaufort
Ana Lee, Southeastern
Jamie Paton, Southeastern
Karleigh Smoak, Southeastern*
Alisha Espinosa, Southeastern
Miranda Goransson, St. Thomas
Emelie Johansson, St. Thomas*
Kasey Cooper, Thomas*
Lyndsay Moore, Thomas*
Breana Pullara, Thomas*
Carina Spengler, Thomas*
Hijalmdis Vilhjalmsdottir, Thomas*
Gloria Gomez, Webber International
Makenzie Vance, Webber International*
Samantha Rommel, Webber International
Delaina Archer, Webber International
Lindsay McCabe, Warner*
Laura Daugherty, Warner
Naybet Febo, Warner
* denotes 2012 Academic All-Conference selections