Four Gators Named All-SEC & Becky Burleigh SEC Soccer Coach of the Year; Three on SEC All-Freshman Team
Tuesday, November 4, 2008 | Soccer
The University of Florida's Becky Burleigh is the Southeastern Coach of the Year and UF leads the league with four soccer players named to All-SEC teams, the SEC announced Tuesday morning. Three Gators - Florida seniors Ameera Abdullah and Megan Kerns plus junior Ashlee Elliott - are among the 12-member All-SEC first team. Junior Lauren Hyde is an All-SEC second team selection. Florida also placed three on the SEC All-Freshman team – Tahnai Annis, Jazmyne Avant and Lindsay Thompson.
Abdullah (Denver, Colo.) and Kerns (Ames, Iowa) are the Gators' top two point scorers in 2008. Kerns leads UF in points (27) and goals (10) while Abdullah is second in points (23) and leads UF with nine assists. Both have been recognized this season by national soccer outlets. Abdullah was named to the TopDrawerSoccer.com National Team of the Week after scoring Florida's first two goals in a 5-1 win versus Tennessee. Kerns was named to the SoccerBuzz.com Elite Team of the Week after scoring both goals, including the overtime game-winner, in UF's SEC opener versus Georgia. Following her three-goal match at Alabama, Kerns was named the SEC Offensive Player of the Week and was part of two national teams of the week (TopDrawerSoccer.com and SoccerBuzz.com). This is Abdullah's third consecutive appearance on an All-SEC team, earning first team honors in 2006 and a spot on the second team in 2007. Kerns makes her first appearance on the All-SEC first team, as she was named to the second team in 2005.
Elliott (Corona, Calif.) makes her second consecutive appearance on the All-SEC first team. The midfielder has tallied three goals and three assists for nine points in 2008. She scored both goals in Florida's final match of the non-conference schedule, a 2-1 win versus then No. 25 Kansas. Elliott's second-half goal tied the Vanderbilt match at 3-all in Florida's eventual 4-3 OT win.
Hyde (Carmel, Ind.) makes her third consecutive appearance on an All-SEC team. She has started all but two matches the Gators have played during her collegiate career, as she suffered a foot injury in preseason and was limited for Florida's opening weekend of the 2008 season. She has played the entirety of 12 matches this season and averages 87 minutes per match in league play from her center back position.
This is the first time Florida has placed more than one player on the SEC All-Freshman team since the league began the team in 2004. Annis is third among the Gators with 22 points and four game-winning goals and her nine goals are the most by a Gator freshman since Abby Wambach turned in 19 in 1998. She is a two-time recipient of the SEC Freshman of the Week (Aug. 25 and Sept. 8). Avant is the only freshman to start every match for UF this season and she has turned in three assists. She averages 80.5 minutes from her right back position to stand third among the Gators. Thompson is fourth among the Gators in points (15) and goals (6). Her first collegiate game-winning goal was golden in Florida's 3-2 2OT win at Kentucky. She was named the SEC Offensive and SEC Freshman Player of the Week following that weekend – the first Gator ever to earn both honors in a single week.
This is the third SEC Coach of the Year honor for Burleigh (1996, 2000, 2008). Leading Florida to its third consecutive SEC title this season may have seemed hopeful at the beginning of the campaign. Florida's 2007 eight-member senior class represented 77 percent of the team's scoring last season and the Gators brought in a 16-member freshman class – the second largest class in the program's history. Florida did win its third consecutive SEC title in 2008, becoming the first team to post an 11-0 league record since the SEC went to round robin play in 2004. Burleigh has led Florida since the program's first season in 1995. Florida's nine SEC titles leads the league and the program owns an all-time record of 108-15-9 in SEC regular-season play - the only league school to pass the century mark in SEC wins.
In other awards announced Tuesday, LSU's Malorie Rutledge collected the SEC Offensive Player of the Year honor, while Megan Tomlinson of Georgia was named the SEC Defensive Player of the Year. Katy Frierson, an Auburn midfielder, is the SEC Freshman of the Year and her teammate, Allison Whitworth is the Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
Next up, the No. 7 Gators open SEC Tournament play with Alabama (9-8-2, 4-6-1 SEC) on Wednesday, Nov. 5. The Crimson Tide is led this season by this season by senior Kailey Corken with 15 points off of six goals and three assists. Match time is set for 6 p.m. at the Orange Beach Sportsplex in Orange Beach, Ala. Sean Houston will call Wednesday's match and can be heard live on WRUF AM 850; simulcasts on Gator Radio - Cox Channel 96/946 in Gainesville and www.GatorZone.com
| 2008 SEC Women's Soccer Awards | |||||
| Coach of the Year: | Becky Burleigh, Florida | ||||
| Offensive Player of the Year: | Malorie Rutledge, LSU | ||||
| Defensive Player of the Year: | Megan Tomlinson, Georgia | ||||
| Freshman of the Year: | Katy Frierson, Auburn | ||||
| Scholar-Athlete of the Year: | Allison Whitworth, Auburn | ||||
| First Team All-SEC | |||||
| Name | Year | Position | School | ||
| Ameera Abdullah | Senior | F | Florida | ||
| Megan Kerns | Senior | F | Florida | ||
| Carrie Patterson | Junior | F | Georgia | ||
| Kylee Rossi | Senior | F | Tennessee | ||
| Molly Kinsella | Sophomore | F | Vanderbilt | ||
| Katy Frierson | Freshman | MF | Auburn | ||
| Ashlee Elliott | Junior | MF | Florida | ||
| Malorie Rutledge | Junior | MF | LSU | ||
| Megan Tomlinson | Senior | D | Georgia | ||
| Danielle Johnson | Junior | D | Mississippi | ||
| Blakely Mattern | Junior | D | South Carolina | ||
| Allison Whitworth | Senior | GK | Auburn | ||
| Second Team All-SEC | |||||
| Brooke Rogers | Sophomore | F | Alabama | ||
| Lindsay Patterson | Senior | F | Arkansas | ||
| Kayla Grimsley | Freshman | F | South Carolina | ||
| Nicola Holdsworth | Senior | MF | Kentucky | ||
| Melissa Clarke | Junior | MF | LSU | ||
| Christine Breaux | Senior | MF | Mississippi | ||
| Jennifer Hance | Senior | MF | Mississippi | ||
| Lauren Hyde | Junior | D | Florida | ||
| Bailey Powell | Freshman | D | Georgia | ||
| Kate Hughes | Senior | D | Kentucky | ||
| Jaimel Johnson | Senior | GK | Tennessee | ||
| All-Freshman Team | |||||
| Name | Position | School | |||
| Katy Frierson | MF | Auburn | |||
| Julie King | MF | Auburn | |||
| Tahnai Annis | MF | Florida | |||
| Jazmyne Avant | D | Florida | |||
| Lindsay Thompson | MF | Florida | |||
| Ashley Miller | F | Georgia | |||
| Bailey Powell | D | Georgia | |||
| Mo Isom | GK | LSU | |||
| Kayla Grimsley | F | South Carolina | |||
| Chelsea Hatcher | MF | Tennessee | |||
| Candace West | F | Vanderbilt | |||
