FARMVILLE, Va. – Longwood senior defender
Sydney Wallace made history for the second straight year, earning her second consecutive Big South Defensive Player of the Year award to highlight a crop of five Lancers who earned seven postseason awards from the conference Tuesday.
A native of Fredericksburg, Va., Wallace followed through on her selection as Preseason Big South Defensive Player of the Year and became only the second Big South player to earn that honor in back-to-back seasons. She also earned All-Big South first team honors for the third straight year, receiving both of those awards by a league-wide vote of the Big South head coaches.
Longwood junior forward
Emilie Kupsov joined Wallace on the All-Big South first team, marking the second straight year both of those Lancers earned first-team honors. Senior defender
Kathryn Miller and fellow backfield mate
Carrie Reaver also pulled in All-Big South honorable mention honors, giving the Lancers at least three All-Big South selections in all seven years as a member of the conference.
Miller also earned a spot on the Big South All-Academic Team, while freshman
Danielle Toone was named to the Big South All-Freshman Team.
The coup of Big South awards follows a 2018 season in which the Lancers (8-6-3, 6-2-2 Big South) won six of their final seven Big South games to earn the No. 3 seed in the upcoming Big South Championship, which begins with Friday's quarterfinal matchup against No. 6 seed USC Upstate at the Longwood Athletics Complex. The Lancers enter the 2018 tournament just one year removed from their first trip to the Big South Championship game, led on that run by a team that was also led defensively by Wallace and offensively by Kupsov.
Wallace, a 5-8 center back, has long been the anchor of Longwood's backfield, having played in every game of her career and amassed more than 6,700 minutes, the most by any non-goalkeeper in the program's Division I era. She has turned Longwood's defense in the Big South's stingiest over the past three seasons, surrendering the fewest goals of any team during that span. This year the Wallace-led Lancers enter the tournament enter the tournament with a 0.94 goals against average in conference play, the third-lowest of any Big South team, and are currently on a run of seven consecutive games holding opponents to one or fewer goals.
Wallace's All-Big South first team selection also puts her in more elite company, as she is the first Lancer to thrice earn Big South first team recognition and only the second to earn at least three All-Big South awards of any classification. She joins former all-time Longwood great Angela Snyder as the only Longwood player to be named to three different all-conference first teams following Snyder's three consecutive All-CVAC first team honors from 1995-97.
Kupsov is on pace to join both Wallace and Snyder on that list, however, as the high-scoring junior forward earned herself a place on the All-Big South first team for the second straight year. Kupsov, who followed up last season's seven-goal breakout with a career-high eight goals and 18 points so far in 2018, was pegged as one of the top four forwards in the Big South. A native of Pottstown, Pa., she has spearheaded Longwood's offense this season, leading Longwood in goals, points, shots and shots on goal, as the Lancers enter Friday's quarterfinal ranked among the conference's top four in goals, assists and shots.
Reaver, meanwhile, followed up her Big South Freshman of the Year award in 2017 with her first All-Big South honor, receiving honorable mention recognition after helping Wallace shore up Longwood's backline once again this season. Reaver leads Longwood with 1,596 minutes this season, playing all but 15 of the team's minutes on the year and co-starring alongside Wallace to hold opposing offenses to a meager 5.4 shots on goal per game. Reaver has also stepped up in the midfield and contributed two goals and an assist, including the game-winning goal in a 4-3 win at Howard on Sept. 2.
Making it a trio of defensive All-Big South honorees for Longwood is Miller, who was named to the honorable mention squad for the second straight year. Her latest honor comes during a senior season in which she dropped back from her attacking midfield role into the defense where she started 10 of her 17 games. She was not confined to that spot, however, as Longwood's Swiss Army knife also made starts at midfield and forward and put together a senior-year resume that included a team-high four assist and her sixth career goal. Miller, who has started 51 consecutive games entering Friday's quarterfinal, has played more than 1,400 minutes this season and trails only Reaver and Wallace in that category.
Miller also showcased her excellence in the classroom and was rewarded with Big South All-Academic honors after improving her career grade point average to 3.79 as a double major in sociology and criminal justice. She joins
Teresa Fruchterman (2017),
Gina D'Orazio (2016), Alana Mackey (2015),
Kelsey McDonald (2013, 2014) and
Lindsey Ottavio (2012) as Lancers to earn those awards.
Lastly, Toone became Longwood's latest Big South All-Freshman selection, earning that appointment on the strength of an inaugural season in which she scored, dished one assist and amassed five points while playing in all 17 games. Her two goals have come in the past six games, with strikes about Big South foes Hampton and Winthrop during Longwood's 6-1 run to the season's end. Toone's all-freshman team selection gives Longwood at least one freshman recognized on that squad every year of Big South play.
Those awards come not only amidst a fourth top-three Big South finish for Longwood women's soccer, but during the program's 25th-year anniversary season. The Lancers will look to extend the season one game at a time during the upcoming Big South Championship, with the potential of a matchup against No. 2 seed Gardner-Webb and No. 7 seed Winthrop looming with a win in Friday's quarterfinal against USC Upstate.
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, CB, 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, OM, 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, F, Sr., 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
#GoWood
