Big South Announces 2018 Women's Soccer Annual Award Winners
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (www.BigSouthSports.com) – Radford senior midfielder Jasmine Casarez (Moreno Valley, Calif.) and Longwood senior defender Sydney Wallace (Fredericksburg, Va.) have been voted the 2018 Big South Women’s Soccer Attacking Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year, respectively, by the conference’s head coaches, it was announced today by the league office. High Point forward Skyler Prillaman (Ridgeway, Va.) was tabbed Freshman of the Year, while Radford head coach Ben Sohrabi was voted Coach of the Year. In addition, the Big South’s sports information directors voted Highlanders’ senior Jessica Wollmann as the women’s soccer Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
Casarez is the first Highlander to win the conference’s Attacking Player of the Year honor since the award’s inception in 2010, and is the program’s first annual award winner since 2013. She ranked second in the Big South in both goals (10) and points (24), while her five game-winning scores led the league. Casarez notched three multi-goal matches this season -- including her first career hat trick Oct. 13 vs. USC Upstate. In 10 Big South matches this season, she led the conference in goals (7), points (18), goals per game (0.70) and points per game (1.80), as well as tops with four game-winning tallies. The three-time Attacking Player of the Week received seven first-place votes and 25 points in the voting, ahead of Longwood’s Emilie Kupsov (19 points and three first-place votes) and Gardner-Webb’s Stina Kleppe (13 points and one first-place vote).
Wallace is just the second back-to-back winner of the Big South Defensive Player of the Year award since the honor began in 2010. She is the anchor of a Longwood backfield that surrendered the fewest shots on goal in conference play (43), as well as engineered a second-half run in which the Lancers did not allow more than one goal in seven consecutive games entering the postseason. Wallace’s play has helped limit opponents to multiple scores just six times in 17 contests this season. She logged more than 1,500 minutes on the pitch for the third-straight year and has started 74 consecutive matches. Wallace received six first-place votes and 20 points in the voting. She finished ahead of Presbyterian College defender Kelsey Yeager (12 points and one first-place vote) and Radford’s Jane Everett (11 points and two first-place votes).
Prillaman is the first Panther to be voted Big South Freshman of the Year. She scored a team-high seven goals (tied for sixth in the Big South) and tallied 17 points (tied for eighth in the league). A two-time Freshman of the Week honoree, Prillaman tallied five goals and 12 points in conference games -- both tied for fourth in the league. She scored a pair of game-winners against league foes among her five goals. Prillaman collected four first-place votes and 20 points in the voting to edge out Gardner-Webb’s Maddie Turlington (18 points and three first-place votes) for the honor.
Sohrabi is now the first four-time Big South Coach of the Year honoree after leading the Highlanders to a 9-1-0 Big South record and the program’s first outright regular-season championship since 2013. Radford, which is 13-2-1 overall, enters the Big South Championship with the league’s longest win streak at eight. The Highlanders concluded the regular-season as the conference leader with 39 goals, 31 assists, and 109 points, as well as in fewest goals allowed (15), goals against average (0.92) and shutouts (8). In league action, Radford posted six shutouts in its nine victories, permitted just six goals and a 0.59 goals against average, and netted a league-best 24 goals. Sohrabi collected nine first-place votes and 29 points in the voting, ahead of Gardner-Webb’s Mike Varga (21 points and one first-place vote) and Longwood’s Todd Dyer (13 points).
Wollmann is a 4.00 student in Anthropological Sciences and is a finalist for the Senior CLASS Award. An Academic All-American selection as a junior last season, Wollmann scored eight goals (four game-winners) and 18 points for the Highlanders during the regular-season. She was recognized as the Big South Attacking Player of the Week on Oct. 1.
The league also announced the 2018 All-Conference and All-Academic teams on Thursday, which are listed below. The All-Conference team is voted by the head coaches and features four forwards, four midfielders, four defenders and one goalkeeper on each team, plus five honorable mention honorees regardless of position. The All-Academic Team consists of one student-athlete from each institution that meets the criteria and is nominated and selected by the Big South’s sports information directors.
2018 Big South Conference Women’s Soccer Award Winners
First-Team All-Conference
F: Jessica Wollmann, Sr., Radford
F: Emilie Kupsov, Jr., Longwood
F: Nelia Perez, Jr., Radford
F: Skyler Prillaman, Fr., High Point
MF: Jasmine Casarez, Sr., Radford
MF: Stina Kleppe, Jr., Gardner-Webb
MF: Alexa Genas, Jr., Campbell
MF: Jordan Lundin, R-Sr., Radford
D: Sydney Wallace, Sr., Longwood
D: Kelsey Yeager, Sr., Presbyterian
D: Kayla Thomas, Fr., Radford
D: Arryana Daniels, Soph., Winthrop
GK: Keely Brown, Sr., Gardner-Webb
Second-Team All-Conference
F: Jada Newton, Fr., Gardner-Webb
F: Allie Thomas, Jr., Winthrop
F: Jada Kinlaw, Jr., USC Upstate
F: Samuelle Grove, Sr., Gardner-Webb
MF: Abbie Ellis, Jr., USC Upstate
MF: Emelie Valenciano, Sr., USC Upstate
MF: Sidney Doherty, Sr., Charleston Southern
MF: Dylan Patterson, Jr., Winthrop
D: Jane Everett, Sr., Radford
D: Brittany DeLoach, Sr., Gardner-Webb
D: Erin Shamleffer, Sr., Gardner-Webb
D: Ellie Stone, Sr., UNC Asheville
GK: Courtenay Kaplan, Jr., Radford
Honorable Mention All-Conference
Emilie Gilbert, D, Sr., Charleston Southern
Carrie Reaver, D, Soph., Longwood
Kathryn Miller, D, Sr., Longwood
Jazmin Gonzalez, GK, Sr., Charleston Southern
Anna Brantley, D, Sr., Campbell
All-Freshman Team
Skyler Prillaman, F, High Point
Maddie Turlington, MF/F, Gardner-Webb
Jada Newton, F, Gardner-Webb
Kayla Thomas, D, Radford
Jessica Donald, MF, Campbell
Reese Degnan, F, Radford
Danielle Toone, F, Longwood
Courtney O’Malley, GK, UNC Asheville
Riley Rumbley, MF, Charleston Southern
Kori Lawrence, F, Presbyterian
Helena Gonzalez, F, Radford
All-Academic Team
Callie Beckwith, D, Jr., Campbell
Grace Clark, D, Sr., Charleston Southern
Stina Kleppe, MF, Jr., Gardner-Webb
Isobel Finnegan, MF, Soph., Hampton
Emily Lyon, GK, Sr., High Point
Kathryn Miller, D, Sr., Longwood
Kelsey Yeager, D, Sr., Presbyterian College
Jessica Wollmann, F, Sr., Radford
Justine James, F, Sr., UNC Asheville
Abbie Ellis, MF, Jr., USC Upstate
JoJo Taylor, D, Sr., Winthrop
Attacking Player of the Year
Jasmine Casarez, MF, Sr., Radford
Defensive Player of the Year
Sydney Wallace, D, Sr., Longwood
Freshman of the Year
Skyler Prillaman, F, High Point
Coach of the Year
Ben Sohrabi, Radford
Scholar-Athlete of the Year
Jessica Wollmann, F., Sr., Radford