EASTON, Mass. – Five members of the University of New Haven women’s soccer team have earned All-Northeast-10 Conference honors, as voted upon by the conference’s 16 head coaches. Monica Yanez (West Haven, Conn./West Haven) led the way with a First Team distinction.
Yanez finished the regular season ranked second in the conference with a team-high 12 goals, including nine against Northeast-10 competition – three of which were game-winners. She was a Third Team All-Northeast and Second Team NEWISA Division II All-New England pick last fall. Yanez is New Haven’s first First Team All-NE-10 honoree since Selina Moylan ’09 in 2008.
A trio of Chargers claimed Third Team honors – Ali Espanol, Lucy Francisco (Lawrence, Mass./Lawrence ) and Amber Simms (Southport, England/Southport). Espanol has started all 18 matches in the New Haven back row, anchoring a defense that posted five shutouts while also recording two goals and two assists.
Francisco, a First Team NEWISA Division II All-New England and Second Team CoSIDA Capital One Academic All-District honoree in 2011, scored six goals and distributed four assists this fall en route to Third Team All-NE-10 laurels. The senior ranks among the top-10 all-time at New Haven in career goals, assists and points.
Simms earns her second-straight Third Team nod after netting two goals with two assists in 13 matches. Simms, who scored the overtime game-winner in the Chargers’ conference win at Le Moyne, was also a Second Team NEWISA Division II All-New England selection in 2011.
Rounding out the honorees is Marisa Garcia (Babylon, N.Y./West Babylon), who was chosen to the Northeast-10 All-Rookie Team by the conference’s head coaches. Garcia ranked fifth in the conference with six assists and also scored three goals, with 11 of her 12 points coming in NE-10 play.
Five total selections mark the most by New Haven since joining the Northeast-10 in 2008 and the most overall since five Chargers garnered All-East Coast Conference laurels in 2006.
The Chargers finished the regular season at 11-6-1, their highest win total since 2007. New Haven’s eight conference wins and sixth-place finish both represent all-time highs in five years of Northeast-10 action.
