Kelly Dostal Crowned National Field Hockey Player Of The Year
12/7/2004 12:00:00 AM | Field Hockey
Dec. 7, 2004
Winston-Salem, N.C. - Wake Forest senior Kelly Dostal has been named the National Field Hockey Player of the Year announced the NCAA and the Honda Sports Award committees on Tuesday. Dostal led all Division I players in scoring and carried the Demon Deacons to a third straight national championship this season.
The senior forward defeated three other Honda Award finalist, including ACC rival, Maryland's Paula Infante. Veerle Goudswaard of Michigan State and Lauren Henderson of the University of Connecticut rounded out the top-four players in Division I field hockey in 2004. Dostal was the only American-born athlete amongst the finalists.
In her four years at Wake Forest, Dostal led the Deacons to a combined record of 78-10, four straight "final four" appearances, the first two regular season ACC titles and first two ACC Tournament titles in school history and to three straight national titles.
Dostal tallied 84 goals in her 84 game career at Wake Forest including a school record 30 this season. She holds the school record in shots this season (173), goals this season (30), goals in a career (84), points this season (79) and points in a career (204).
The Hatfield, Mass. native notched 19 assists this season, more than all three of her previous seasons combined. She recorded two hat tricks in 2004 and connected for at least two goals in 10 games during her senior campaign. Dostal tallied at least one point in each of the Deacon's 23 games this season.
She led the ACC - arguably the strongest field hockey conference in the nation, representing three of the final four teams in the NCAA Tournament - in points, points per game, goals, goals per game, shots, shots per game and was second in the conference to teammate Maeke Boreel in assists and assists per game.
She was named the ACC Player of the Week four times in 2004, All-ACC for the third year in a row, NCAA All Tournament team for the second year, the ACC Offensive Player of the Year, the womensfieldhockey.com player of the year, named the Sports Illustrated on Campus National Fall Female Athlete of the Year and crowned the Wake Forest homecoming queen.
Dostal becomes the second field hockey player in as many years to win the Honda Award. 2004 Wake Forest graduate and this years volunteer assistant coach, Kelly Doton, earned the honor last season. Not since the 1997-98 season has one school offered back-to-back winners and it has only happened five times since the player of the year award was first given for the 1976-77 season. Cindy Werley of North Carolina was named the Honda Award winner for the 1996-97 season and again in the 1997-98 season. Ironically, those were the second and third seasons in a row in which North Carolina won the national title.
Deacon head coach Jennifer Averill earned the Honda Award for her outstanding 1986-87 season at Northwestern. Averill joins field hockey legend and current North Carolina head coach Karen Shelton as the only individual to earn the award as a player and have two or more athletes earn the honor during their coaching tenure. Shelton, who won the honor three straight seasons from 1976-78 at West Chester University, has seen three girls win the award at North Carolina during her 24 seasons at the helm of the Tarheels program. Christy Morgan was named the Honda Award recipient during the 1984-85 season while at Old Dominion and while coach at James Madison, saw Carole Thate earn the award in 1995-96.
The Honda Awards program, now in its 29th year, recognizes the top woman collegiate athlete in each of 12 NCAA-sanctioned sports. The Award winners in the 12 sports are nominees for The Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year with the winner receiving The Honda-Broderick Cup. The awards program is sponsored by American Honda Motor, Co., Inc. and they donate $5,000 to each Honda Sports Award recipient school and $1,000 to each nominee school. A press conference announcing the winner of The 2004-2005 Honda-Broderick Cup will be held in New York City at the Low Library at Columbia University in June 2005. The Cup will be presented to The Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year. A field hockey player has never won the Honda-Broderick Cup.
For information concerning the Honda Award, contact
Harvey Bolgla hblogla@dba-pr.com
Dobbin/Bolgla Associates
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Tel 212-388-1400
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