Lady
Jacket Soccer Team Hands out Season Awards (Dec. 8, 2004)
BILLINGS, MT – The Montana State-Billings
women’s soccer team announced its 2004 season awards this week.
The Yellowjackets finished the season with a 12-4-3 overall record
and a No. 10 raking in the Far West Region by the National Soccer
Coaches Association of America. It was the first time an
MSU Billings soccer team has been ranked at the end of a season.
Goalkeeper Megan
Plank was named the team’s Most Valuable Player for the
second-straight year. The sophomore from Phoenix, AZ, posted a
school-record 1.03 goals against average in 19 starts and made 98
saves. She is the school record holder with 18 career wins and
will need just 20 saves in 2005 to break the school record in that
category.
Junior transfer Lacey Albrent was selected as the Newcomer of the Year.
Albrent, a defender from Ojai, CA, started 18 games in her first
season with the Yellowjackets and was a key component of the
Jackets’ record setting defense. MSU Billings set a school record
with a team goals-against average of 1.08 while allowing just 22
goals, the fewest of any team in school history.
Margot
Merrill-Johnson garnered two awards for her record-setting
season, earning the Scholar Athlete Award and Quest for Excellence
Award. The Scholar Athlete Award is given to the player with the
highest cumulative grade point average on the team. The Quest for
Excellence Award is give to the upperclassmen who demonstrates
teamwork, hard work, dedication, discipline, and passion in the
women’s soccer program.
Merrill-Johnson, a senior from Salt Lake
City, has a 3.88 cumulative grade point average while double
majoring in history and sociology. She was named to the ESPN
Academic All-America first team in November. Merrill-Johnson set
school single-season records with 11 goals and 28 points this
season. She started all 70 games of her collegiate career and
broke the school record for career points with 71.
The Yellowjackets also received the 2004
College Women’s Team Academic Award from the NSCAA this week. The
award is given to college soccer teams with cumulative team grade
point averages above 3.00 in the previous school year. For the
2003-2004 academic year, the Lady Jackets posted a 3.38 cumulative
team GPA. |
