Northwestern University Athletics
Courtney Koester Named Illinois' Woman of the Year State Winner
9/12/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Lacrosse
NCAA Woman of the Year State Winners
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Sept. 12, 2005
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- The NCAA announced that Northwestern lacrosse player, Courtney Koester (Richmond, Ind./Richmond), was named Illinois' 2005 Woman of the Year State recipient.
The prestigious award honors outstanding female student-athletes who have excelled in academics, athletics and community leadership, and have completed their athletics eligibility. A complete list of recipients can be found in the .pdf at the top of this page.
A national winner--the NCAA Woman of the Year--will be selected by the NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics from among 10 finalists. The top 10 finalists will be announced September 12.
Koester, a senior on last year's national championship squad, has a laundry list of accolades following her career at NU. Most recently, she was named ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America of the Year for the at-large category, arguably the toughest of the different Academic All-America programs as it combines all the NCAA-sponsored women's sports that do not have their own Academic All-America program. The women's sports that do have such programs are volleyball, soccer, basketball, softball and cross country/track & field.
Koester was a catalyst for the Wildcat lacrosse team this season, helping the fourth-year program stun the lacrosse-playing nation by going 21-0 and winning the NCAA championship. She was recently named first-team All-America by the IWLCA and Inside Lacrosse, and also was the IWLCA National Defender of the Year as well as the Inside Lacrosse National Defensive Midfielder of the Year. In addition, Koester was a semifinalist for the Tewaaraton Trophy which is given to the nation's top lacrosse player.
Koester, a three-time first-team All-American Lacrosse Conference (ALC) selection, led the 'Cats and finished eighth nationally in draw controls (73). She was also among the team leaders with 44 ground balls and 29 caused turnovers. Koester was one of the anchors of a defensive unit -- along with twin sister Ashley Koester, Lindsay Finocchiaro, Emily Lovett, and goalkeeper Ashley Gersuk -- that led the nation in goals-against average (5.90). All this from a woman who had never played lacrosse before being recruited to try out in the fall of 2001.
Koester graduated with a degree in computer engineering. Among her academic awards at Northwestern, she was this year's recipient for the IWLCA's prestigious Scholar Athlete Award, and she is a four-time Academic All-Big Ten and ALC Academic Honor Roll honoree. Koester also has earned a spot on the IWLCA Academic Honor Roll two times.
