LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. – In exclusive voting by the head women's soccer coaches of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC), Trinity University's Kaity Ward was selected SCAC Offensive Player-of-the-Year for the second consecutive year while her teammate Bailey Meyer was named SCAC Defensive Player-of-the-Year. Complete Release
I In that same balloting, Southwestern University's Samantha Hazen earned Newcomer-of-the-Year honors while her coach, Linda Hamilton, was named SCAC Coach-of-the-Year.
A senior forward from Phoenix, Ariz., Ward led the league in virtually every offensive category, including goals scored (17), assists (11), points (45), game-winning goals (5), shots (99) and shots on goal (43). Ward is the first player since Sara Morgan of Centre College, who accomplished the feat in 1998, to lead the league outright in both goals and assists in a single season. A two-time SCAC Offensive Player-of-the-Week selection during the regular season, the senior has scored a goal in nine of the Tigers' 17 games, including four multiple-goal performances. Ward set an SCAC record for most goals and points in a single conference game when she buried five goals and added an assist for 11 total points in the Tiger's 9-1 win over Schreiner in October. In leading Trinity to its second-straight SCAC Tournament crown last weekend, Ward netted a goal in both contests, including the game-winner in the championship fixture. She has scored in five-straight SCAC Tournament contests, dating back to last year's tournament, setting a new SCAC record for most consecutive tournament games with a goal and breaking the previous mark of four-straight set by Trinity's Kelsey Falcone during the 2013 and 2014 tournaments. Ward's selection as SCAC Offensive Player-of-the-Year represents the 15th time a Trinity student-athlete has won the award and the 11th time in the last 13 years. She becomes the fourth different Tiger as a back-to-back recipient of the honor, joining Abigail Loar (2010 and 2011), Emily Jorgens (2012 and 2013) and Chelsea Cole (2017 and 2018).
Ward received seven votes in the balloting for Offensive Player-of-the-Year honors while Southwestern's Hazen received the remaining first-place vote.
A junior defender from Southlake, Texas, Trinity's Bailey Meyer anchored a Tiger defensive unit that surrendered the fewest goals in league play, allowing just three in seven games with a goals-against-average of 0.38. Trinity finished tied for the lead with 10 shutouts, tied for second in goals allowed (14) and third in goals-against-average (0.81) for the entirety of the 2021 season. A two-time SCAC Defensive Player-of-the-Week selection during the regular season, Meyer has made 41 starts in her career, helping the Tigers post a shutout in 27 of those. She has played a key role in the team's defensive efforts, not only preventing goal-scoring opportunities, but also by limiting shot selection. The SCAC Defensive Player-of-the-Year award is the fourth in the last five years for the Trinity program and Meyer is the ninth different Tiger to receive the honor.
Meyer received four first-place votes in the Defensive Player-of-the-Year selection process, followed by 2020-21 honoree senior defender May Lien Le of Dallas and senior defender Sam Davis of Southwestern, who received two votes each.
Samantha Hazen, a first year forward from Northbridge, Mass., made an immediate impact in Georgetown her rookie year, starting in all 18 games for the Pirates this season. She led Southwestern and finished in the top three in the SCAC in nearly every offensive statistical category. Hazen finished with nine goals and eight assists for a total of 26 points – all marks good for third in the SCAC. Her nine goals are the most for an SCAC freshman since Stephanie Segovia scored 23 in 2011. Hazen also led the Pirates and finished second in the SCAC with 53 shots – with 34 of those on goal – and accounted for four game-winning goals. She opened her career by scoring a goal in four-straight games to start the season and posted two multiple-goal efforts in SCAC wins over Centenary (Oct. 15) and Austin College (Oct. 22), which included the game-winner against the 'Roos. Hazen is the fourth Southwestern player to earn Newcomer-of-the-Year honors, following Laura Kromann (2006), Sarah Bevins (2013) and Mary Cardone (2016).
Hazen received five votes in Newcomer-of-the-Year voting while first-year forward Michaela Bosco of Trinity finished with three first-place votes.
In her seventh season at the helm of the Southwestern program, Linda Hamilton led her squad to the program's first-ever SCAC Regular Season title with an unbeaten conference mark of 7-0-1, securing the top seed at last weekend's SCAC Tournament where the Pirates advanced to the championship match for the third time in the last four years. In the run to capturing the program's first conference regular season crown and posting the first unbeaten league record in school history, Hamilton led Southwestern to a 2-1 victory over Trinity on Oct. 10th, snapping the Tigers' historical run of 133-straight SCAC regular season victories that dated back to 2008. In her last three full seasons (excluding the COVID-19 shortened spring 2020-21 season), Hamilton has led the Pirates to 10-plus wins each year, marking the first time Southwestern has won 10-plus games in three consecutive seasons since accomplishing the feat from 2007-2009. The Pirates' .861 winning percentage (15-2-1) is the best in program history.
The award is the third for Hamilton – she previously picked up the honor in 2016 and 2018 – and marks the fifth time a Southwestern coach has received SCAC Women's Soccer Coach-of-the-Year accolades
To view the entire 2021 All-SCAC Women's Soccer Team, click here.
