Norwood, Massachusetts, junior All-American is program's second national player of the year in three seasons
Stonehill's Smith Named Longstreth/NFHCA Division II National Player of the Year
EASTON, Mass. (December 15, 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 National Player of the Year, the organization announced today.
Smith earns Division II Player of the Year honors for the first time in her career, marking the second time in three seasons a Stonehill student-athlete has collected the honors, joining former teammate Erika Kelly '16 who became the first in program history named the Longstreth/NFHCA Player of the Year following the 2015 season. Smith is the eighth student-athlete in Stonehill history overall to garner national player of the year honors.
Smith, a two-time Longstreth/NFHCA East Region and NE10 Player of the Year, was also tabbed the Division II Offensive Player of the Year by Synapse Sports last week. She is a consensus first team All-American for the second-straight year, having been named a second team All-American as a freshman by Synapse Sports.
Smith, a two-time All-NE10 first team honoree, completed a historic offensive season at both the NE10 and NCAA Division II level for Stonehill this fall. She set a new NCAA Division II record with her 41 goals scored, surpassing Bloomsburg University's Jamie Vanartsdalen's previous mark of 40 in 2008, leading all three levels of NCAA field hockey in goals and points. Smith finished the year with an NE10-record 99 points, just three shy of Vanartsdalen's 2008 NCAA Division II mark, also adding a Stonehill record 17 assists to lead Division II in that category as well. She also led the NE10 with nine gamewinning goals – one shy of the program's single-season record.
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.
Smith will enter her senior season ranked 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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