BENNINGTON, Vt. — A second season of firsts continued after the final horn of the team's championship match as the Southern Vermont College women's lacrosse squad picked up a handful of All-New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) honors on Monday, being highlighted by the selection of junior captain Mel Orrell (Gloucester, Mass.) as the league's 2016 Player of the Year.
Orrell, at the midfield, was joined on the All-NECC First Team by fellow junior captain and attacker Lauren Nesshoever (Chittenden, Vt.) as the pair became the program's first players to ever received top conference team honors.
Additionally, senior captain Emily Freling (Schenevus, N.Y.) was voted onto the All-NECC Second Team at defense while being named to the NECC All-Sportsmanship Team. SVC second-year head coach Thomas L. Otero was selected by his peers as the 2016 NECC Coach of the Year after leading the Mountaineers to a 5-2 record in league action and the No. 3 seed in the Conference's postseason tournament.
Coaches from around the NECC voted on players nominated by their respective leaders prior to the start of the playoffs, Otero being tabbed as the league's top head coach before taking SVC to its first-ever conference title game.
Orrell finished the 2016 season with a league-leading 68 goals, topping her 2015 SVC single-season record of 43. She also led the team in assists (8), points (76, 3rd in NECC), ground balls (83, 2nd in NECC), draw controls (84, 2nd in NECC), and free-position goals (15, 3rd in NECC). Those marks were all new single-season Southern Vermont records as well.
She recorded her 100th career goal in just her 26th collegiate contest before being named the NECC Player of the Week last Monday. Orrell was then tabbed the Eastern College Athletic Conference Division III New England Player of the Week as well.
"Mel is such an intense player who is constantly working to improve her individual and team game," Otero said of his first Player of the Year. "She understands the value of the team and how you must work together to be successful. She is an asset to every player on the team and elevates everyone's skill and play with her competitiveness and leadership. She is a very approachable and kind team athlete."
Nesshoever scored 32 more goals than she did last year with 45 in '16, ranking second for the Mountaineers and 11th in the Conference. She added six assists, totaling 51 points to sit at 12th on the NECC list and set a new second-best single-season program mark. Additionally, the junior ranked third on the team with 36 ground balls, and she collected 41 draw controls for the second-best SVC mark and seventh-highest tally in the league. This is her second Conference honor in women's lacrosse after she was selected as an All-NECC Honorable Mention in 2015.
"Lauren's game improved exponentially this season," Otero commented of his junior captain. "She has great speed and is a very tenacious player, often pushing herself to the limits to benefit the team. She consistently helps other teammates with skill improvement and has a strong knowledge of game strategies, which has resulted in our overall team improvement this season. Lauren continues to improve her level of play with every game; she is a true leader."
Freling was a rock in the backfield for the Mountaineers, starting all 18 games while helping be the general for the Southern Vermont defense. She had 33 ground balls on the year, the fourth-most for the team, while reeling in 12 draw controls.
"Emily is the success story that everyone wants to hear," Otero noted, "a first-year player last season who really worked hard to develop her game to be competitive and help our team win. Her speed and defensive skill helped allow us to have her guard our opponent's better players with great success. She helped to maintain the integrity and honor of the game of lacrosse and guided her teammates to always play within the rules. A thoughtful athlete who turned into a very good defensive player, she is someone you would love to call your teammate and friend."
Otero became the first Coach of the Year in program history, as well, while being the third Southern Vermont head coach to be honored with the league's coaching honor this academic year (Kathleen Newton- Men's Cross Country, Dan Engelstad- Men's Basketball).
"It is such an honor to be selected by my peers for this award," Otero said of his decoration. "I have been blessed with 17 athletes and one assistant coach who worked so hard in games and practices and did the best they could to make our team a winner. I looked at my opportunity at Southern Vermont as a challenge to develop a competitive program – to compete in our conference and beyond.
"Our athletes have grasped my philosophy to become a successful collegiate lacrosse program, which begins with honoring the game of women's lacrosse," he added. "I am so proud of the efforts by each and every player on our team. They all had individual roles – different from one another – but all contributed to the success of our program. Thank you, Southern Vermont College, for giving me this opportunity."