SUWANEE, Ga. - For the first
time in league history, three players will share one of the
conference's major postseason awards. In exclusive balloting by the
head coaches of the conference, Diana Buss of Rhodes College, Evey
Gannaway of Sewanee-University of the South and Allison Terry of
Centre split the vote to share 2008 SCAC Offensive
Player-of-the-Year. Katy Joyner of Rhodes was voted the league's
Defensive Player-of-the-Year.
In that same balloting, Abigail Loar of Trinity University was
tabbed SCAC Newcomer-of-the-Year, and Rhodes head coach Bobby
Lessentine gave the Lynx at least a share of three of the four
major postseason awards when he was voted SCAC
Coach-of-the-Year.
Diana Buss, a senior midfielder from Montgomery, Ala., led the SCAC
champion Lynx in scoring with five goals and 10 points, including
three game-winners. Buss had four of her goals in conference play
and two of those were game-winners. She is just the second player
from Rhodes to earn SCAC Offensive Player-of-the-Year and the first
since Rachel Day was Co-Player-of-the-Year in 1996.
Evey Gannaway, a senior forward from Collierville, Tenn., had eight
goals (tied for seventh in the SCAC) and two assists for 18 points
on the season (1.06 points per game - tied for ninth in the SCAC).
She was second on her team in scoring, despite the attention she
got from other teams. The league's offensive POTW in Week 5,
Gannaway is the first player from Sewanee to earn SCAC Offensive
Player-of-the-Year honors.
Allison Terry, a senior forward from Lexington, Ky., had seven
goals (tied for 10th in the SCAC) and six assists (tied for sixth
in the SCAC) for 20 points for the Colonels - which tied for the
seventh-most points in the conference this season. Terry had a
knack for performing well in high-pressure situations as witnessed
by her league-high four game-winning goals - three of which came in
conference play. Before Terry, Sara Morgan (1995-1998), the
league's all-time leading scorer, was the last Centre player to
take home the league's Offensive Player-of-the-Year honor
(1998).
Buss, Gannaway and Terry earned three votes each to share Offensive
POTY. A.J. Andreola of Southwestern received the remaining
vote.
Kate Joyner, a senior defender from Dallas, Texas, was captain and
leader of the Rhodes' back line that allowed only 11 goals overall,
four in SCAC play - the fewest goals allowed both overall and in
conference play. The Rhodes defense also posted seven shutouts in
league play and 11 overall. A two-time All-SCAC selection, Joyner
was the SCAC Defensive Player-of-the-Week in Week 4.
Joyner received four votes in the Defensive POTY voting, followed
by Danika Wright of Trinity and Kate Anderson of Centre with two
votes each. Kate Willingham of Sewanee and Kaitlin Elledge of
Austin College received one vote each.
Abigail Loar, a first-year forward from Littleton, Colo., had six
goals and five assists for 17 points - second on her team in
scoring and third among all first-year players. Loar, who had two
game-winning goals for Trinity, scored some critical goals and
created a tremendous amount of opportunities for teammates both
directly and indirectly with her movement off the ball. She is the
fourth player from Trinity to earn the league's
Newcomer-of-the-Year award and first since Kate Semmler in
2003.
Loar received six votes in the Newcomer-of-the-Year voting,
followed by Kelsey Boling of Centre, who had two votes. Lizzie
Butler of Sewanee and Jessica Harris of Millsaps College received
one vote each.
Coach Bobby Lessentine led the Rhodes women to their first SCAC
title since the 1991 season and the program's first-ever NCAA
Tournament appearance. His Lynx wrapped up their second 14-win
season in the last three years and finished 14-4-2 after a
heartbreaking loss to Illinois Wesleyan on penalty kicks in NCAA
first round play. In four seasons as the head coach at his alma
mater, Lessentine has amassed on overall coaching record of 50-17-8
(.720). It is the second time Lessentine has been named SCAC
Women's Coach-of-the-Year, the first coming after the 2005 season
in which he led Rhodes to its best finish in a decade.
Lessentine received five votes from his peers in the COTY voting,
followed closely by Jay Hoffman of Centre, who received four votes.
Hoffman took his Colonels to the NCAA Tournament as an at-large
team, which was also that program's first NCAA appearance. Paul Van
Hooydonk of Millsaps received one vote.
For the complete 2008 All-SCAC Women's Soccer release, click
here.