ROSEMONT, Ill. – After posting a 19-0 record and earning the Big Ten regular season and tournament titles, five Terps earned 2017 Big Ten individual honors, as voted on by the league's seven coaches and announced by the conference Monday.
Senior Zoe Stukenberg earned Big Ten Midfielder of the Year accolades while senior Nadine Hadnagy was named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year. Sophomore Megan Taylor repeated as the Big Ten Goaltender of the Year and attacker Kali Hartshorn tallied Big Ten Freshman of the Year honors.
Head coach Cathy Reese was named Big Ten Coach of the Year for the second straight season. This is the ninth time in Reese's career she has earned conference coach of the year honors. In her 11th season at Maryland, Reese led the Terps to their third straight undefeated regular season. Under Reese, Maryland has gone 16-0 in Big Ten regular season games.
A senior co-captain, Stukenberg is one of Maryland's leaders across the field. She ranks in the top three on the team in each statistical category, including 44 goals, 22 assists, 66 points, 42 ground balls, 62 draw controls and 18 caused turnovers, all of which are career highs. She earned Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week honors once and was named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week twice this season. Earlier Monday, Stukenberg was announced as one of Maryland's Big Ten Medal of Honor recipients.
Hadnagy leads Maryland's defense, which ranks 16th nationally with just 9.21 goals allowed per game. She is tied for the team lead with 18 caused turnovers and is fourth on the team with 25 ground balls. Hadnagy was named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week once this season.
Taylor has emerged as one of the top goalies in the country as just a sophomore. She ranks third nationally with a .549 save percentage and is 16th nationally with a 9.18 goals-against average and 10.00 saves per game. The Glenelg, Md., is ninth in the country with 180 saves. Taylor was named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week five times this season.
Stukenberg, Hadnagy and Taylor were unanimously named All-Big Ten last week and were all also selected to the Big Ten All-Tournament team. The trio along with Megan Whittle are Maryland's Tewaaraton nominees.
Hartshorn stepped into the Maryland starting lineup as the only true freshman and immediately became the Terps' draw specialist. She has 85 draws so far this year, good for sixth in the Maryland record books for a single season. Also an offensive threat, Hartshorn ranks second on the team with 49 goals and is fourth with 60 points. She earned Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors five times this season.
Since joining the conference prior to the 2015 season, Maryland has featured the Big Ten Midfielder and Defensive Player of the Year in each year.
Penn State's Steph Lazo was named the Big Ten's Attack Player of the Year.
The Terps will host the first and second rounds of the NCAA tournament this weekend. Maryland will face the winner of Towson-High Point first round game on Sunday at noon at the Field Hockey & Lacrosse Complex.
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