Northwestern University Athletics
Amonte Hiller, Kjellman, Frank Garner ALC Specialty Awards
5/11/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Lacrosse
May 11, 2006
EVANSTON, Ill. -- The Northwestern Wildcats took home three of the four specialty awards handed out by the American Lacrosse Conference (ALC) and a total of six student-athletes took home first or second team honors as voted on by the league's head coaches.
For the second straight year, Kristen Kjellman took home Player of the Year accolades. Her coach, Kelly Amonte Hiller, was named Coach of the Year by her peers for the third-consecutive year while teammate Meredith Frank was named the Rookie of the Year.
The Wildcats led all teams with four first team selections and had six all-conference selections overall. Joining Kjellman on the first team were teammates Sarah Albrecht, Lindsey Munday and Lindsay Finocchiaro. Aly Josephs accompanied Frank on the second team.
Amonte Hiller has now led a total of 23 players to all-conference status in her five years at Northwestern while Munday becomes the first Wildcat in school history to garner all-league honors four straight years.
Kjellman helped the Wildcats to an undefeated conference season, the number-one ranking at the end of the regular-season as well as the No. 4 seed in the 2006 NCAA Tournament. At the end of the regular-season, Kjellman ranked fourth in the nation in draw controls (4.71) and seventh in the nation in scoring (4.94) and is among the top three in the conference in scoring, goals, draw controls and ground balls and is fifth in assists per game. She earned ALC Player of the Week honors once this season.
Frank was one of the most prolific scorers in the nation this year among freshmen and was a major contributor to the Wildcats all over the field. She ranked in the top-10 in the conference in assists, draw controls and caused turnovers. Frank is the second Wildcat ever to receive Rookie of the Year honors as her Westwood, Mass. teammate, Kjellman, took home the honor in 2004.
Amonte Hiller, who earned the ALC Coach of the Year award in 2004 and 2005, earned the honor again for a third-consecutive year after leading the 'Cats to an undefeated regular conference season and the No. 1 ranking in the nation. In 2005 she led the Wildcats to their first national title and became just the second person in Division I history to win a title as a player, assistant coach and head coach.
Munday currently leads the team with 87 points (41 G, 46 A) and ranks second nationally with 2.7 assists per game and sixth with 5.12 points per contest. Albrecht is sixth on the team with 25 goals and led with 52 ground balls while Finocchiaro helped anchor one of the top defensive units in the country from her defender position. Josephs finished the regular-season second on the team with 43 goals to go with 37 ground balls.
The Wildcats begin their title defense at 2 p.m. CT this Sunday, May 14 as they host the Stanford Cardinal in the first round of the 2006 NCAA Division I NCAA Women's Lacrosse Championship at the Lakeside Field in Evanston.
Player of the Year: Kristen Kjellman, Northwestern
Rookie of the Year: Meredith Frank, Northwestern
Goalie of the Year: Jen Heup, Ohio
Coach of the Year: Kelly Amonte Hiller, Northwestern
ALC First Team
Sarah Albrecht, Northwestern
KC Carter, Ohio State
Sasha Cielak, Vanderbilt
Renee Cipro, Penn State
Lindsay Finocchiaro, Northwestern
Jen Heup, Ohio
Kate Hickman, Vanderbilt
Mary Key, Johns Hopkins
Kristen Kjellman, Northwestern
Jessi Lieb, Penn State
Lindsey Munday, Northwestern
Kadie Stamper, Johns Hopkins
ALC Second Team
Lauren Bryan, Penn State
Margie Curran, Vanderbilt
Meredith Frank, Northwestern
Molly Frew, Vanderbilt
Sarah Gallion, Johns Hopkins
Kirsten Gilwee, Ohio State
Cara Giordano, Vanderbilt
Shannon Hadaway, Ohio
Kristen Hannon, Ohio State
Aly Josephs, Northwestern
Shari Maslin, Penn State
Lauren Schwarzmann, Johns Hopkins
