MIDDLETOWN, Conn. – The progress made by the Wesleyan field hockey team throughout the 2023 campaign was acknowledged by the NESCAC head coaches as four Cardinals were voted All-NESCAC, including three that made the First Team list. The four All-NESCAC honorees ties a single-season program record first set back in 2002 while the three All-NESCAC First Teamers signals a program record as Wesleyan had never previously had multiple First Team selections in a single-season.
 
Making history for Wesleyan in the All-NESCAC voting is the three First Team picks in forward Georgia Adams '26, back Imani Ochieng '25, and goalkeeper Audrey Pace '26, while midfielder Helen Deretchin '25 was voted to the All-NESCAC Second Team. The last time Wesleyan had multiple All-NESCAC players was back in the 2010 campaign.

Georgia Adams '26 | Forward | First Team

Dynamic with the ball on her stick, Adams produced one of the most impressive goal-scoring seasons by any Cardinal in team history, finishing her sophomore season with 16 goals and two assists for 34 points in 16 games. Adams ranked at or near the top of the NESCAC leaderboard in goals and points all throughout the campaign, finishing the season third with a one goal per game average while her 2.13 points per game also ranks third-best in the NESCAC. She is just the third Cardinal in program history to earn All-NESCAC First Team honors and the first to do so since Jenn Wasserman '05 earned a First Team nod back in 2004.
 
Adams' 16 goals are the most in a single-season by a Cardinal since Beth Shilepsky '94 set the single-season team record with 21 back in 1992. She produced four multi-goal games and scored at least one goal against eight of the Cardinals' 10 NESCAC opponents. Following a three-goal weekend wherein Wesleyan landed consecutive wins over ranked opponents Trinity and Hamilton, Adams earned NESCAC Player of the Week honors, becoming the first Cardinal since Tori Redding '13 in 2010 to earn the league's weekly award.

Imani Ochieng '25 | Back | First Team

Playing defensive midfield and center back during the first two seasons of her career, Ochieng shifted to right back in 2023 and found a permanent home as she thrived in the role. The junior started all 16 games and played the second-most minutes of any field player on the team. She played a big role on the Cardinals' penalty corner unit, amassing a team-leading seven assists with one goal for nine points, a new single-season career-high. Her seven assists tied for eighth-most in the NESCAC and are the most of any defender in the league.

Audrey Pace '26 | Goalkeeper | First Team

 

Voted as the top goalkeeper in the NESCAC, Pace was among the best in the nation by the end of the season. Pace posted single-game save totals of 11, 14, and nine in the final three games of the regular season, then made a NESCAC Tournament record 23 saves in a 3-2 quarterfinal loss to Williams in overtime. Following her 14-save effort in a 3-2 penalty shootout win over No. 11 Bowdoin, Pace was named NESCAC Player of the Week and later the NFHCA Division III National Defensive Player of the Week. Pace is just the second Cardinal goalkeeper to earn All-NESCAC First Team honors, joining an exclusive club that includes only Redding who earned the distinction in 2010.
 
For the season, Pace finished with a 9-7 record, starting all 16 games and playing over 920 minutes in the cage. She racked up 121 saves, ranking fourth on the all-time single-season saves record list at Wesleyan and most of any goalkeeper in the league, averaging 7.56 per game which is second-most in the NESCAC. Pace recorded a .786 save percentage on the season, the best mark of any NESCAC goalkeeper.

Helen Deretchin '25 | Midfield | Second Team

A leader, distributor, and all-around force in the midfield for Wesleyan, Deretchin earns her first career All-NESCAC honor with the Second Team nod. She is just the sixth midfielder in program history to earn All-NESCAC laurels and the first to do so since Blair Ingraham '14 in 2013.
 
Deretchin started all 16 games, prolonging her consecutive start streak which is now at 37 dating back to her freshman season in 2021. Her season totals included five goals and three assists for 13 points, giving her 36 career points over 44 games played in three years as a Cardinal. Her five goals are a new single-season record while she scored three of them on penalty strokes but none bigger than her overtime stroke goal that gave the Cardinals a 2-1 win over No. 5 Tufts in Medford, signaling the first road win over a Top 5 ranked team in program history.