Lady Jacket Soccer Announces Team Awards (12/11/06)

BILLINGS, MT – Montana State-Billings head women’s soccer coach Don Trentham announced his team’s season awards at their annual awards dinner on Friday.  The Yellowjacket soccer team hands our four awards annually: Newcomer of the Year, Scholar Athlete, Most Valuable Player, and the Quest for Excellence Award.

For the third-straight year, the Montana State-Billings women’s soccer team posted the best season in the program’s history.  Of the 59 school records tracked annually, 49 of them fell this season.  The most important school record was the 13-6-1 mark posted by the Jackets in 2006.  The 13 wins were the most in school history.

Freshman Samantha Boehm (Wilsonville, OR) was selected by her teammates as the Newcomer of the Year.  Boehm anchored the Jackets’ back line that was statistically the best defense in school history.  The Jacket defense was second in the league for goals allowed and goals against average.  They led the conference in shutouts.  MSUB set single season school records this season for goals allowed, goals against average, shutouts, and consecutive shutouts.  Boehm was named first team all-conference.

The Scholar Athlete award, presented to the junior or senior with the highest cumulative grade point average, went to senior Ally Stroup (Ojai, CA) for the second year in a row.  A psychology major with a 3.62 GPA, Stroup was twice named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District VII second team.

Stroup also shared Most Valuable Player honors with fellow senior goalkeeper Megan Plank (Phoenix, AZ).  The MVP award is voted on by team members.  Stroup and Plank both came to MSU Billings at the same time and were instrumental in putting Yellowjacket soccer on the map.  Both players were all-conference first team selections the last two years.

Stroup finished her career at MSU Billings as the best offensive player in school history.  She holds career school records for goals, assists, and points.  This season Stroup scored 16 goals and had seven assists to lead the Heartland Conference in points, points per game, goals, and goals per game.  She was also second in the league for game winning goals and fourth for assists and assists per game.

Plank holds every goalkeeping record at MSU Billings, including career wins, shutouts, saves, and goals against average.  This season she led the Heartland Conference in shutouts and ranked second for goals against average, save percentage, and saves.  Plank set school single season records this year for wins, shutouts, and goals against average.  The team MVP award was Plank’s fourth of her career at MSUB.

The Quest for Excellence Award, voted on by players, is considered the highest honor awarded by the women’s soccer program at MSU Billings.  It is presented to an upper classman who has demonstrated teamwork, hard work, dedication, discipline, and passion to the program.  The 2006 honor was presented to senior Jenny Moellendorf (Green River, WY).  Moellendorf ranks second in school history with 73 career games played and twice was a member of the Heartland Conference’s Commissioner’s Honor Roll.

Along with announcing the season awards, Trentham also introduced his 2007 captains on Friday.  Replacing Stroup and Plank as captains will be Brittney Sandau (Billings, MT) and Sara Gress (Boise, ID).  Sandau will be a senior next season, and Gress will be a junior.