IRVING, Texas – Jason Neidell has been named the 2016 C-USA Coach of the Year and five Lady Toppers picked up All-C-USA laurels as announced by the conference office Tuesday afternoon ahead of the start of the C-USA Tournament on Wednesday.
Olivia Fitzgerald and Nicole Roseland were named to the All-C-USA First Team, Iris Dunn and Allison Leone garnered spots on the Second Team and Chandler Backes landed on both the Third Team and the All-Freshman Team. The all-conference honors were the first of each player's career except for Dunn, who also earned Third Team accolades last season and Second Team Sun Belt honors in 2013; Leone (2014) and Roseland (2015) also placed on the All-Freshman Team during their rookie campaigns.
The Coach of the Year honor is Neidell's first since the team joined C-USA prior to the 2014 season and third of his career after also earning the award in 2007 and 2013 as a member of the Sun Belt. The only coach in program history, Neidell owns a 180-101-33 (.626) overall record at the helm and has led WKU to a 12-6-0 record in 2016, the team's most wins in a single season since 2012.
After being picked eighth in the preseason C-USA coaches' poll, the Lady Toppers outperformed that prediction by five spots under Neidell, finishing third in the league behind only North Texas and Rice. WKU went 7-3-0 in conference play and surrendered just four goals against C-USA opponents, the fewest in the league, and earned the program's first-ever win over Rice on Sept. 30, knocking off the Owls in Houston behind Dunn's match-winner and Leone's nine saves.
Fitzgerald has been one of the lynchpins of WKU's defense as its center back this season en route to her first all-conference honors. The senior leads all WKU players with 1,615 minutes played and has helped the defense to 10 shutouts, seven of which came during C-USA play. The Carmel, Ind., native also collected her first point of the season at FIU on Oct. 16, assisting on Hannah Chua's match-winner against the Panthers. Fitzgerald has also collected CoSIDA Academic All-District honors this season and was named the C-USA Defensive Player of the Week on Sept. 12.
WKU's second First Teamer, Roseland has also been an instrumental part of the defense from her holding midfielder position. Hailing from Altamonte Springs, Fla., the sophomore was tabbed the C-USA Co-Defensive Player of the Week on Sept. 26 after limiting Southern Miss to just two shots on goal in a 1-0 shutout. Assisted by Roseland, WKU's defense has held opponents to two shots on goal or fewer six times this season and held Georgia State without a single shot, on goal or otherwise, in a 4-0 victory on Sept. 4.
One of the most dangerous scorers in program history, Dunn earned all-conference honors for the third team in her career, becoming just the fifth player in program history to accomplish that feat with her Second Team honors. The senior is tied for sixth in WKU history with 22 career goals and has found the back of the net five times this season, including match-winners against Rice and UAB. Dunn also ranks seventh in program history with 49 career points (22 goals, five assists) and has had five or more goals in each of her four seasons, joining Mallory Outerbridge, Jenna Silverberg and Kellie Walker as the only Lady Toppers to do so. Like Fitzgerald, Dunn has also been named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District Team and will represent the Lady Toppers on the Academic All-America ballot later this month.
Already one of the top goalkeepers in WKU history with one season still to play, Leone earned nine solo shutouts and made 56 saves to collect Second Team honors this season. The goalkeeper led WKU on a streak of five consecutive shutouts during the month of September and pieced together a 533-minute shutout streak that ranked third in the nation among Division I programs at the time; in total, Leone has given up just 10 goals and owns a goals against average of 0.59 for the season. The Kennesaw, Ga., native already ranks second all-time among WKU goalkeepers in career goals against average (1.00) and shutouts (22) and third in wins (30) and saves (207); Leone was named the C-USA Goalkeeper of the Week twice this season on Oct. 3 and Oct. 10.
Backes exploded onto the scene as a freshman for the Lady Toppers this season, finishing as C-USA's leading goalscorer with 10 goals and becoming just the fifth player in program history to record double-digit goals in a season. The Carmel, Ind., native was tabbed the C-USA Offensive Player of the Week and earned a spot on TopDrawerSoccer.com's National Team of the Week on Sept. 6 after scoring three goals against Austin Peay and Georgia State. Backes has three two-goal matches this season and found match-winners against Morehead State, Marshall and Southern Miss. Nationally, Backes is tied for fourth among all freshmen with her 10 goals, a mark that pushed her to Third Team and All-Freshman Team honors.
WKU will begin the 2016 C-USA Tournament on Wednesday evening at 6 p.m. (CT) as the third-seeded Lady Toppers take on host Charlotte at Transamerica Field in the quarterfinals. WKU will be seeking its first postseason victory since joining C-USA after narrow one-goal losses against Rice and North Texas in the quarterfinals each of the last two seasons.
For more information on WKU Soccer, visit WKUSports.com or follow the team via social media @WKU_Soccer on Twitter and Instagram and on Facebook at facebook.com/WKUAthletics.
