Skyhawks have received honors four-straight years
Longstreth/NFHCA Division II Region Players of the Year Announced
EASTON, Mass. (December 12, 2017) – Stonehill College junior All-America forward Kacie Smith (Norwood, Massachusetts/Norwood) has been named the Longstreth/National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA) Division II East Region Player of the Year for the second-straight season, the organization announced today.
It marks the fourth straight year a Stonehill student-athlete has earned the honors, with fellow two-time recipient and 2015 Longstreth/NFHCA Division II Player of the Year Erika Kelly, '16 collecting the award in back to back seasons in 2014 and '15, prior to Smith's back-to-back honors. It is the third Player of the Year accolade for Smith this season (fifth career) after being voted the Northeast-10 Conference Player of the Year by the league's head coaches last month, and collecting Division II Offensive Player of the Year honors from Synapse Sports last week.
Smith, a consensus first team All-American for the second-straight year, earned NE10 Player of the Year and All-NE10 first team honors for the second-straight year this fall. She collects NFHCA East Region Player of the Year for the second-straight year after completing a historic offensive season at both the NE10 and NCAA Division II level. Smith set a new NCAA Division II record with her 41 goals scored this season, leading all three levels of NCAA field hockey in goals and points, finishing the year with an NE10-record 99 points – just three shy of the NCAA Division II mark. Smith also added a Stonehill record 17 assists, leading Division II in that category as well.
Smith, who appeared in the "Faces in the Crowd" section of the November 6 issue of Sports Illustrated, scored a goal in 18 of Stonehill's 20 games this season, including a run of 16-staight games at one point. She netted multiple goals in 11 games, including nine hat tricks, posting a string of seven straight multi-goal games during the season that included four-straight hat tricks. Smith scored a career-high four goals three-times, including a 9-0 win over American International College on September 8, in which she also dished a career-high three assists for a career-best 11 points. She also led the NE10 with nine gamewinning goals.
Smith, also a consensus first team All-America performer as a sophomore, ranks second in program history with 183 points and 77 goals in 61 career games, while ranking third all-time with 29 career assists. She earned NE10 and Longstreth/NFHCA Division II Offensive Player of the Week accolades three times this season and four times each over her career at Stonehill. Smith collected Synapse Sports Division II All-Rookie honors and NE10 All-Rookie Team status her freshman year.
Stonehill finished its 2017 season with a 13-7 record overall, including 10-2 in the NE10, earning the program's ninth NCAA Tournament bid after appearing in the NE10 semifinals for the fifth-straight year.
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