The Tribune

BAHAMIAN Lauren Haven is making a name for herself at the University of Charleston.

Haven, a junior for the UC’s Golden Eagles women’s soccer team, joined Amanda McKee and freshmen Dominique Dosky and Ivey Nucilli on the MEC second team, while freshman goalkeeper Zoe Zyta found herself on the MEC honourable mention team.

Charleston’s Holly Bigg earned Mountain East Conference women’s soccer first team honours, the league office announced. This is the third consecutive season that Bigg has been named First Team All-Conference, once in the WVIAC and twice now in the Mountain East Conference.

Bigg was not the only Golden Eagle that came away with accolades as four other members of the UC women’s soccer team picked up All-MEC Second Team awards with another taking away honourable mention recognition.

Nucilli and Zyta took away additional hardware as they both were selected to represent the University of Charleston on the 2014 MEC All-Freshman team.

Notre Dame College’s Alexis Manoa has been named Mountain East Conference offensive player and freshman of the year, West Virginia Wesleyan’s Rachel Ritchey is the league’s defensive player of the year, and NDC’s Mike Shiels is the coach of the year.

Manoa, a freshman from Strongsville, Ohio, led the MEC in points with 26 points on eight goals and 10 assists. She had a goal or an assist in 10 of NDC’s 16 matches on the year.

Ritchey, a senior from Pittsburgh, was the heart of the West Virginia Wesleyan defence that had shutouts in over half of its games this year and allowed the fewest shots per game in the MEC. She also contributed four goals and one assist from the back line.

Shiels is the MEC coach of the year for the second consecutive time after helping the Falcons to a 12-2-2 overall record. The Falcons were 11-1-2 in conference play and captured the regular season championship for the second time in as many seasons.

Notre Dame led all teams with five first team selections, while West Virginia Wesleyan was next with three. Shepherd had two first team honourees, and West Liberty, Charleston and Concord each had one member on the first team.

The All-MEC teams are selected by a vote of the league’s coaches.