University of North Carolina Athletics
UNC's Averbuch and Dorrance and UCLA's Cheney Claim Top Awards from Soccer Buzz
December 14, 2006 | Women's Soccer
Dec. 14, 2006
NEW YORK, N.Y. - Soccer Buzz Magazine (www.soccerbuzz.com), the exclusive women's collegiate soccer web publication, announced the top player and coach awards for the 2006 season on Thursday. Yael Averbuch earned the Player of the Year Award, becoming the 16th different UNC player in 28 years of varsity play to earn a national player of the year award. Carolina's Heather O'Reilly became the 15th player to do so Wednesday when she was named Player of the Year by Soccer America.
In addition, Anson Dorrance won his second national coach of the year accolade in two days as Soccer Buzz honored the 28-year head coach of the Heels with the award. Dorrance won Soccer America's Award Wednesday.
Helping her team to an 18th NCAA Championship, Yael Averbuch of North Carolina has been named the 11th Soccer Buzz winner of National Player of the Year. The midfielder, who set an NCAA record for fastest goal in a game on September 3, becomes just the third sophomore to win the nation's top player award following previous sophomore recipients Lindsay Tarpley of UNC (2003) and Christine Sinclair of Portland (2002.) The Upper Montclair, N.J., native was key in a rebuilt UNC lineup of youth as she spearheaded an offensive attack with her 16 goals and 7 assists. Averbuch, the 2006 ACC Offensive Player of the Year, is the fourth Tar Heel to garner National Player of the Year honors from Soccer Buzz. She is the first true midfielder to be named best in the nation since Santa Clara's Aly Wagner won the top honor in 2001. Averbuch's finish in balloting was followed by runner-up Kerri Hanks, a sophomore at Notre Dame, and third-place finisher Heather O'Reilly, a senior at North Carolina. For O'Reilly, it marked the third straight year the UNC striker has placed among the top five in player of the year voting. Both Hanks and O'Reilly have previously earned National Freshman of the Year honors in their careers while Averbuch was among the top five vote getters in 2005 for the nation's top rookie award.
Picking up the first-ever top individual national award for UCLA, Lauren Cheney has been selected the National Freshman of the Year by Soccer Buzz. Cheney exploded onto the college scene by posting 19 goals in her rookie campaign despite missing the first two weeks of the season while competing for the U.S. team in the FIFA U-20 World Championships. The Indianapolis, Ind., forward was named the Pac-10 Freshman of the Year and led UCLA to its fourth consecutive College Cup appearance. Her performance led to her being named Soccer Buzz West Region Player of the Year, the first time a freshman has ever earned a region's top player honor in the entire country. A first-team All-America, Cheney is just the sixth freshman to earn such a distinction from Soccer Buzz. She is just the second Pac-10 athlete to grab the nation's top freshman award and the first from the west coast since 2001 when Portland's Christine Sinclair nabbed the honor. Portland's Michelle Enyeart was second in the 2006 voting and North Carolina's Tobin Heath was third. Rounding out the top five in voting was Nikki Marshall of Colorado and Michele Weissenhofer of Notre Dame.
Staking a claim on an award that is fast becoming one he contends for annually, Anson Dorrance of North Carolina was voted National Coach of the Year. After leading a young Tar Heel team to an ACC Championship, Dorrance marched on to win his 18th NCAA Championship. This youthful version of the Heels danced to a school season record twenty-seven match win streak after a season-opening loss and finished the year 27-1. UNC suited up for 15 games against teams nationally ranked at the end of the season and against three more that held rankings during the season. Dorrance and the Tar Heels faced 21 NCAA Tournament teams, yet ranked among the top 10 nationally in both offense and defense with an 81-13 scoring edge. His 2006 honor marks his fourth after he previously was voted the nation's top coach in 2003, 2001 and 1997.
The tandem of Colin Carmichael and Karen Hancock at Oklahoma State finished second in balloting behind Dorrance for coach of the year. Carmichael and Hancock led the Cowgirls to their first ever appearance in the nation's Top 10 and ended the year at No. 12 in the Soccer Buzz polls. The breakthrough season for Oklahoma State included an improvement from ninth in the Big 12 standings to second and the program's first ever NCAA Tournament win. OSU's 17-3-3 record was the best in school history as was its runner-up Big 12 standing.
For 2006 awards, as well as all honors presented since 1996, visit the Buzz Honors section at Soccer Buzz, www.soccerbuzz.com.
