Nov. 11, 2004
MISSION, Kan. - Santa Clara University senior midfielder Leslie Osborne is considered one of the 15 best women's collegiate soccer players in the United States, as she has been selected as a semifinalist for the Missouri Athletic Club's Hermann Trophy, the official National Soccer Coaches Association of America Player of the Year award for Division I competition.
The award is regarded as college soccer's version of the Heisman Trophy. The 15 candidates were selected by a nominating committee of Division I college coaches. Headlining this year's list of semifinalists are six players who were on last year's ballot: Nicole Barnhart, a senior goalkeeper from Stanford; Lori Chalupny, a junior forward from North Carolina; Keeley Dowling, a senior defender from Tennessee; Melissa Tancredi, a senior defender from Notre Dame; Lindsay Tarpley, a junior forward from North Carolina; and Tiffany Weimer, a junior forward from Penn State.
Osborne is a Soccer Buzz, Soccer America and CSTV preseason All-American and was named the WCC Defender of the Year earlier today. A first-team All-WCC selection, she has 20 starts as a holding midfielder and has seven goals and one assist for 15 points thus far this season. The Menomonee Falls, Wis., native has four game-winning goals to add to her totals, and has earned All-Tournament honors at three events this season, while also being named to the league's weekly honor roll.
Joining Osborne as the other nominations on the women's ballot: Kristen Graczyk, a senior forward from Connecticut; Lindsey Huie, a junior midfielder from Portland; Natasha Kai, a junior forward from Hawaii; Carli Lloyd, a senior midfielder from Rutgers; Heather O'Reilly, a sophomore forward from North Carolina; Christine Sinclair, a junior forward from Portland; Katie Thorlakson, a junior forward from Notre Dame; and Brittany Timko, a sophomore midfielder from Nebraska.
The winner will be determined in voting by NSCAA Division I member coaches. Three finalists for the M.A.C. Hermann Trophy will be announced at the 2004 Men's College Cup in December. The finalists will be invited to the Missouri Athletic Club in St. Louis on Friday, Jan. 7, 2005, for the announcement of the winner at a press conference. The winner will be presented with the prestigious crystal soccer ball trophy at a banquet later that evening.
Past recipients include former Broncos Mandy Clemens and Aly Wagner. Clemens won both the Hermann Trophy and M.A.C. Player of the Year awards in 1999, while Wagner became the first honoree to have the distinction of receiving the newly-unified award.
An exhibition featuring the current winners and past winners of the M.A.C. Hermann Trophy is on display at the National Soccer Museum in Oneonta, N.Y.