The Big East announced their postseason women’s soccer awards back last Saturday, and two Marquette players earned recognition as voted on by the league’s coaches. Freshman midfielder Katrina Wetherell was named to the All-Big East Second Team, while forward Alyssa Bombacino and Wetherell were both included on the All-Freshman team. Oddly, even though enough coaches voted for her to put her on the all-league squad, Wetherell is not noted in the Big East press release as a unanimous choice for the All-Freshman team. That’s weird.
Wetherell started all 18 matches for the Golden Eagles, making her one of the most reliable components of the squad in 2018. Only three other players were in the starting lineup all 18 times with all three — Emily Hess, Bri Jaeger, and Maddy Henry — playing on the defensive end of the field. Wetherell played more minutes than anyone outside of MU’s defensive back end and finished tied for second on the team in points with six. She scored her first career goal against Villanova and added four assists on the year.
She’s the first Marquette freshman to ever earn all-Big East Second Team Honors, and no newcomer has ever been on the league’s First Team at the end of the season.
Bombacino made a place for herself in the Marquette lineup thanks to goals in back-to-back matches in Big East play. She finished the year with three markers, tied for the team lead in that department and tied with Wetherell for second in points. Want to know the crazy part about her three goals? Six shots. For the whole season. I don’t know about you, but I’m okay with her efficiency taking a dip next season if she’s going to find the back of the net a few more times.
Let’s turn our attention to the rest of the Big East awards and see how our predictions turned out.
Offensive Player of the Year: Caitlin Farrell, Georgetown
Defensive Player of the Year: Meaghan Nally, Georgetown
Midfielder of the Year: Samantha Dewey, Xavier
Goalkeeper of the Year: Arielle Schechtman, Georgetown
Freshman of the Year: Anja Savich, Butler
Coaching Staff of the Year: Georgetown
4-for-5 with an error on forgetting to pick a Freshman of the Year is some pretty solid work, if I do say so myself. Heck, I can’t even be blamed for missing on Dewey as Middie of the Year as Xavier’s own website lists her as a forward. The four hits were all pretty obvious picks as laid out in the predictions article, so I don’t think I need to go into too much detail here.
On to the All-Big East First Team!
Paige Monaghan, Butler, Sr., M
Annika Schmidt, Butler, R-Jr., D
Taryn Jakubowski, Creighton, Jr., M
Franny Cerny, DePaul, Sr., F
Caitlin Farrell, Georgetown, Sr., F
Paula Germino Watnick, Georgetown, Jr., F/M
Meaghan Nally, Georgetown, Jr., D
Arielle Schechtman, Georgetown, Sr., GK
Katie Day, Providence Friars, Sr., D
Zsani Kajan, St. John’s, R-So., F
Samantha Dewey, Xavier, R-Jr., M
The lack of obvious midfielder choices when I tried to pick a team of 11 is how I ended up with getting only seven of these correct. I continue to be tired of the Big East coaches ignoring the importance of assists in these matters, as I really feel that Georgetown’s Kyra Carusa and her league lead in helpers deserved a spot. Oh well.
We’ll wrap up with the Second Team and the All-Freshman Team.
All-BIG EAST Second Team
Anja Savich, Butler, Fr., F
Adrian Walker, DePaul, Jr., D
Kyra Carusa, Georgetown, Grad., F
Grace Nguyen, Georgetown, So., M
Katrina Wetherell, Marquette, Fr., M
Shelby Hogan, Providence, So., GK
Hannah McNulty, Providence, So., F
Kayla Steeves, Providence, Sr., M
Christina Bellero, St. John’s, Sr., F
Claudia Cagnina, St. John’s, Sr., M
Kristin Barbour, Villanova, Jr., D
Grace Bahr, Xavier, Jr., D
All-Freshman Team
Morgan Kloosterman, Butler, M
Anja Savich, Butler, F
Ansley Atkinson, Creighton, M
Mollie Eriksson, DePaul, GK
Ellie Mink, DePaul, M
Katrina Wetherell, Marquette, M
Alyssa Bombacino, Marquette, F
Hannah Morgan, Providence, D
Hensley Hancuff, Villanova, GK
Niki Molina, Villanova, M
Chloe O’Neil, Villanova, F
Hayley Jakovich, Xavier, D