Senior back Stephanie Kott was presented with her NE-10 Defensive Player of the Year award at the NE-10 Championship banquet recently. |
Stonehill Places Four on All-Northeast-10
Field Hockey Teams
Kott named NE-10 Defensive Player of the Year; Morris voted Coach of the Year
EASTON, Mass. (November 5, 2009) - Four members of the Northeast-10 Regular Season Champion Stonehill College field hockey team received All-Conference honors as selected by the NE-10's 11 head coaches.
Senior back Stephanie Kott (Rutland, Mass./Notre Dame Academy) led the All-Northeast-10 selections from Stonehill, earning Defensive Player of the Year honors. Joining Kott on the All-NE-10 first team were seniors Claire Hourihan (East Amherst, N.Y./Williamsville North) and Jackie Ladino (North Dartmouth, Mass./Dartmouth). Junior Lindsey Pinkham (Skowhegan, Maine/Skowhegan Area) was selected to the All-Conference second team.
Head Coach Shelly Morris receives the NE-10 Coach of the Year award from Conference Commissioner Julie Ruppert. |
Also honored was second year head coach Shelly Morris as her peers selected her as the Northeast-10 Coach of the Year. Morris is the second Stonehill coach to earn the award, joining Sheila Campbell who collected NE-10 Coach of the Year honors in 1998. Morris led the Skyhawks to their second NE-10 regular season championship with a 9-1 Conference mark this fall. Stonehill, ranked 3rd nationally and tops in the NCAA Division II North Regional rankings all five weeks, boasts the top defense in the NE-10 while ranking third in scoring.
Morris has posted a 30-11 (.732) record over her two seasons at Stonehill, including a 21-7 (.750) mark in Conference play. She boasts a 97-73 (.571) record over eight seasons as a head coach, including her six years at Ohio University before taking over at Stonehill.
Kott is the second Stonehill field hockey player to earn Defensive Player of the Year honors, joining Libby Hannah who earned the award in 2003. Kott, a four-time NE-10 Defensive Player of the Week this season, leads a Skyhawks defense which leads the Northeast-10 with a 1.08 team goals against average and six shutouts. She also leads the team with nine assists - good for third in the Conference - and has one defensive save.
Claire Hourihan |
Kott earned a spot on the All-Championship team for the NE-10 Tournament this past weekend. The Stonehill defense has limited opposing teams to just 5.9 shots per game and only 3.4 on goal per contest.
In 83 career games played, Kott has dished 12 assists. She is a two-time ZAG/National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA) All-Academic Squad member.
Hourihan earns All-Northeast-10 honors for the second-straight year with her first first team selection. A second-team All-NE-10 pick last season, she has tied her own single-season program record this season with 20 goals (2nd NE-10) to go with four assists for 44 points (3rd) - four shy of her single-season record set last fall. She leads the NE-10 with ten game-winning goals. Hourihan earned NE-10 Player of the Week honors three times this season.
Hourihan will enter the NCAA Tournament ranked second in program history with 49 career goals, only four shy of former teammate Caitlin Gleason's record of 53 set from 2004-07. Hourihan's 118 career points also rank second all-time to Gleason (132) and she ranks sixth with 20 career assists in 82 games played. She has netted 14 career gamewinning goals.
Jackie Ladino |
Ladino, a Longstreth/NFHCA Division II first team All-American as a junior, earns All-Northeast-10 honors for the third-straight year and is a first team selection for the first time. She finished second on the team with 29 points (9th NE-10) and 12 goals (7th) to go with five assists this season. Ladino, who earned NE-10 Player of the Week honors once and All-Championship team honors this season, has netted three game-winning goals.
Ladino enters the NCAA Tournament just one assist shy of the program career record with 35, while her 97 career points are good for third all-time, having scored 31 career goals - good for fourth - in 83 career games played. She also has eight career game-winning goals to her credit and her ten assists recorded in each if her first three seasons are the fourth-highest single-season total in program history.
Lindsey Pinkham |
Pinkham earns All-Northeast-10 honors for the first time with her second team selection. She has posted five goals and four assists for 14 points with two of her goals scored proving to be game-winners.
In 63 career games played over three seasons, Pinkham has totaled 13 goals (five game-winners) and nine assists for 35 career points. Also a member of the Stonehill indoor and outdoor track and field teams, she is now an All-Conference performer in two sports, having been part of the NE-10 Champion 4x800m relay team and runner-up in the 800m at the 2009 Northeast-10 Indoor Championships.
Stonehill (17-4, 9-1 NE-10), ranked third in this week's Kookaburra/NFHCA Division II poll, has been named the top seed for the North Region and host of the NCAA Division II Field Hockey Championships November 13 and 15. The Skyhawks will play a national semifinal game on Friday, November 13, at W.B. Mason Stadium at 5 p.m. They await the winner of this weekend's first round contest between second-seeded and No. 4-ranked Bentley University (16-4, 8-2 NE-10) and third-seeded and 5th-ranked University of Massachusetts Lowell (16-5, 7-3 NE-10).
The Skyhawks also received their NE-10 Regular Season Championship trophy at the recent banquet. |
