HADLEY, Mass. – The Wesleyan women's soccer team earned two major awards and had three student-athletes named to the All-NESCAC teams, as announced by the conference on Thursday morning. Forward Grace Devanny '23 was tabbed the NESCAC Player of the Year while Eva Meredith was named the Coach of the Year. Devanny was joined on the All-NESCAC First Team by defender Julia Meehan '21 while goalkeeper Sarah Hammond '22 picked up All-NESCAC Second Team honors.
 
Devanny, who was named the NESCAC Rookie of the Year back in 2019, becomes just the second Cardinal to earn Player of the Year honors, joining Laura Kurash '13 who won the individual honor in 2012. The engine behind the Cardinal attack, Devanny is tied for third in the league in goals (10) while she leads the NESCAC with nine assists to give her a league-leading 29 points in 17 games. Devanny's nine assists are tied for the second-highest single-season total in program history. Six of her 10 goals have gone down as game-winners for Wesleyan. Devanny has at least a goal or assist in 13-of-17 matches this season while she put together a seven-game point streak late in the year. She produced her lone multi-goal game in a 2-1 win over Trinity on Oct. 12 while she had two assists in wins over Bowdoin (Sept. 25) and Hamilton (Oct. 23). This is Devanny's second All-NESCAC appearance but first as a member of the First Team as she earned an All-NESCAC Second Team distinction in 2019.
 
Meredith earns NESCAC Coach of the Year honors for the first time in her career as she becomes the first Wesleyan coach to garner the honor since its inception in 2000. A resurgent team in recent years, the 2021 Cardinal squad is in the midst of the most-successful season in program history. Meredith's group has already established a new single-season program record for wins (14) while the Cardinals rattled off their best NESCAC single-season mark (8-1-1) and advanced to their first-ever NESCAC Championship game appearance. This week, Wesleyan continued to make program history, earning the program's first-ever NCAA Tournament berth. This team has already set single-season records for most goals scored (47), fewest goals allowed (8), assists (50), shutouts (11), consecutive shutouts (5) and highest national-ranking (11) while Wesleyan is also undefeated at 7-0 on the road this season.
 
Meehan joins Devanny on the All-NESCAC First Team as the right back continued her stellar defensive play in 2021 while producing career-highs on offense across the board. Starting all 17 games, Meehan incredibly has missed just one game in her four-year career, entering the NCAA Tournament with 63 career games played (56 starts), the most games played of any Cardinal in program history. Coming into her senior year with four career assists, Meehan's offensive output has taken a massive spike as she has seven points (one goal, five assists) through 17 games. Meehan's goal at Bates on Oct. 16 was the first of her career while she posted five assists on the season including two in a 3-0 road win at Eastern Connecticut State on Oct. 20. She is third among field players in minutes played this season at 1272 as she just crossed the 4000 career minute mark in the NESCAC Tournament.
 
Hammond picks up All-NESCAC Second Team honors as she has been a stalwart in the net all season for Wesleyan, posting a mark of 13-1-2 in her 16 starts. Allowing just eight goals all season, Hammond's 0.53 goals-against average is first in the NESCAC as well as the lowest in program history while her 13 wins in 2021 are a new program record. Hammond has four solo clean sheets but added to that total is five combined clean sheets, to give her nine combined shutouts this season. She has 51 saves in just over 1351 minutes played, giving her a save percentage of .864 which ranks 3^rd in the NESCAC. Hammond has 25 career wins in her three seasons of competition and she is already the Cardinals' all-time leader, passing the previous record holder Stacey Parris '98 (20 wins) earlier this season.

Wesleyan's (14-1-2) dream season is far from finished as the Cardinals head into their first-ever NCAA Tournament this weekend, playing host to First and Second Round action starting with a Saturday matchup against Penn State Behrend at 11 AM from either Jackson or Smith Field (to be determined). The winner of that First Round game will move on to face the winner of the Ithaca vs. Stevens match on Sunday at 1 PM.