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| December 1, 2007Seasiders Honored by PacWest
Laie, HI—Brigham Young University Hawaii women’s soccer player Jill Haar was honored as the Pacific West Conference Player of the Year as the Seasiders landed several conference honors this week. BYU–Hawaii Head Coach Justin Wagar was named the Coach of the Year by the conference and freshman goalie Becky Ploeger got the Goalie of the Year award. Freshman Sarah Welty shared the Newcomer of the Year Award and the Seasiders landed seven players on the All-Conference Teams for the season. Named to the first team All-Conference team were Haar, Sarah Norton, Kristina Nibley, and Ploeger. Garnering second-team honors were Ashley Hunter and Welty, while Natasha Aiono received Honorable Mention recognition from the PacWest. Haar, a senior from Diamond Bar, California, who was earlier named to the 2007 Daktronics All-Far West Region Second Team, served as a co-captain of the Seasider squad this season and scored 15 goals during BYU–Hawaii’s run to the PacWest title in just the second year of women’s soccer at the school. Haar also racked up seven assists to lead the Seasiders in scoring with 37 points as BYU–Hawaii fashioned a 13-6-1 record for the season and an 10-2 mark in the conference. That conference title in just the second year of soccer earned Wagar his award for his coaching job this season. Wagar, a former BYU–Hawaii men’s player from 1998-1999, was the interim head coach for one year at Utah Valley State before coming to BYU–Hawaii and in his two seasons in Laie has compiled a remarkable 25-10-1 record and has gone 18-4 in the PacWest. Ploeger, from Broomfield, Colorado, led the PacWest with a 1.06
goals against average and ranked second in the league in save percentage at
76.2 percent. Sarah Norton, a senior co-captain from Cedar City, Utah, and Kristina Nibley, a sophomore from Provo, Utah, anchored the steady BYU–Hawaii defense this season that was one of the stingiest in the region. Norton was also honored by making the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District Second Team for the west. Ashley Hunter, a sophomore from Woods Cross, Utah, finished third on the team in scoring contributing five goals for the Seasiders this season including a pair of game-winners. Aiono, a freshman from South Jordan, Utah, scored four times for the Seasiders this year while adding three assists.
Sarah Welty, from Antelope, California, finished tied for fifth
in the league in scoring with 16 points on six goals and four assists as a
freshmen. Welty
is the second consecutive Seasider to win this award, with forward Emily
Mearns earning it in 2006.
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