Unscientific Predictions: Big East Women's Soccer Postseason Awards

If the last few seasons are anything to go by, we won't find out the postseason award winners until the day before the semifinals, so I have a few days head start here. Still, it's best to take a look at things before stats change slightly by the inclusion of postseason matches, so we'll make predictions now and see how things shake out on Thursday.

Offensive Player of the Year: Rachel Daly, Forward, Sophomore, St. John's - I'll admit it: I wasn't sold on Daly as OPOY until Saturday. There was a chance that the Red Storm would miss the Big East tournament, so Daly's scoring totals wouldn't be enough to carry her. But the woman I've decided is actually a futuristic goal scoring robot delivered two goals to push the Red Storm to hosting a quarterfinals match, so she wins. Daly broke the SJU single season goals record with 20 on the season so far, which gives her more than the next two players on the conference leaders list COMBINED. She also finished with 43 points on the season, 17 more than the second best player in the league.

Defensive Player of the Year: Emily Jacobson, Defender, Senior, Marquette - That's right, I'm calling for a Marquette player to win this award for the fourth consecutive season. Jacobson has two Defensive Player of the Week awards, and two Weekly Honor Roll spots as she was the center back for a Marquette team that allowed three goals in nine league matches and never allowed more than one in any Big East game. Georgetown's Mary Kroening matched Jacobson with Player of the Week and Honor Roll spots, but Marquette beat Georgetown 4-0, so that decides that.

Midfielder of the Year: Sophia Maccagnone, Sophomore, Butler - The league has handed this award out before, so I presume it will continue. Maccagnone is the player who came in second to Daly in the points race, tallying 26 on nine goals (T-2nd) and eight assists (4th). I'm not entirely sure what the standards are for "Best Midfielder" so I'm just going with "Best scoring midfielder."

Goalkeeper of the Year: Alejandria Godinez, Sophomore, DePaul - The main reason why DePaul was in play for a quarterfinal bye until the last day of the regular season? Look no further than their keeper. I realize that she didn't win Keeper of the Week even once, but she led the league in goals-against average (0.68) and save percentage (.892), and even more impressively, she did this while making 99 saves, third most in the Big East. So not only was Godinez outstanding, she had to be, not only to protect her sieve like defense, but also to protect the Blue Demons anemic offense, which never produced more than two goals in any league game.

Rookie of the Year: Katie Martin, Forward, Freshman, Villanova - Had St. John's keeper Diana Poulin kept up her early season performances, this could have been interesting. But she drifted back to Earth in Big East matches, so we'll go with Villanova's leading scorer on the season. Martin finished tied for 11th in the league with six goals and tied for second in assists with 10. Her 22 points on the season were good enough to get her tied for fifth most in the Big East.

Coach of the Year: Markus Roeders, Marquette - Undefeated. End of discussion.

For the all-conference team, we'll go with the same setup that the Big East used for the preseason awards: four players at each field position, including the yearly award winners in each slot and a keeper.

All Big East First Team

Forwards
Kaitlin Brenn, Georgetown
Rachel Daly, St. John's
Daphne Corboz, Georgetown
Maegan Kelly, Marquette

Midfielders
Ashley Clarke, Seton Hall
Mary Luba, Marquette
Sophia Maccagnone, Butler
Taylor Madigan, Marquette

Defenders
Emily Jacobson, Marquette
Georgia Kearney-Perry, St. John's
Mary Kroening, Georgetown
Kelsey O'Donnell, Creighton

Goalkeeper
Alejandria Godinez, DePaul