Eutectics land KCAC All-Conference haul with 8 recipients
A remarkable second season for the UHSP Women's Lacrosse team has led to haul of regular season accolades as eight Eutectics were named to the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference's (KCAC) All-Conference teams. The KCAC announced their list of All-Conference players on Thursday as the league opened up its' postseason conference tournament at Missouri Baptist.
Headlining the list of UHSP recipients is Head Coach Ashley Reid who in just her second year with the program was named the KCAC Coach of the Year. Reid spent two seasons with conference rival St. Mary before joining UHSP to construct and guide the new women's lacrosse program. After a winless inaugural season, Coach Reid has led the Eutectics to a winning record in year two as UHSP was 7-6 heading into the KCAC Postseason Tournament.
The Eutectics had two offensive players named to the KCAC First Team All-Conference. Caeley Doran and Ella Penke are the top two points leaders for UHSP this season with Doran nearly totaling as many goals herself as the entire team did all of last season. Doran leads the squad with 33 goals with he 2022-23 club netting 43 total goals. Doran set a program record with six goals in a game on March 9 against Missouri Valley and has also totaled six assists on the season. She also has two games where she scored five goals in a contest this season. Doran also leads the club this year with 40 ground balls and 25 caused turnovers. Her 33 goals have come on a club-high 67 shots and team-leading 56 shots on goal. Doran was named KCAC Offensive Player of the Week for the week of Feb. 20-26, the first Eutectic ever to receive that recognition from the conference.
Penke, meanwhile is the third-leading scorer on the club with 16 goals but is the leading assist getter also with 16. Those 16 assists account for 28% of the team's total assists on the season. Penke had a record performance in the season opener scoring a then program-record five goals against Hendrix on February 10 scoring on each of her five shots on goal in the game. She has had two game this season where she tallied four assists in a contest: Feb. 24 vs Mount Mercy and Mar. 9 vs Missouri Valley.
Five Eutectics were named to the KCAC Second Team All-Conference including Michelle Le, Molly Biermann, Heidi Shepherd, Tyler Cotten and Brianna Dixon. Le is the second-leading scorer for UHSP with 20 goals on the season and second in ground balls with 33. Le has been heavily relied on in the faceoff circle and has a club-leading 73 draw controls this year which is also second overall in the KCAC. Biermann has been a versatile players on both ends totaling ten goals and four assists this season along with 29 ground balls, 27 draw controls and 19 caused turnovers. Shepherd and Cotten anchor the Eutectic defense with the former fourth on the club with 25 ground balls and the latter recording 13 in that category. Shepherd has 19 caused turnovers with Cotten having nine.
UHSP goaltender Brianna Dixon is now a two-time KCAC All-Conference recipient after being given the same honor last year. Dixon started all 13 regular season matches in net for the Eutectics this season and played all but two halves in goal throughout the season. Dixon has 98 saves on the year with a goals against average of 10.25 and a save percentage of 44.3. She ranks second in the KCAC among netminders in all three of those categories. Dixon had a career-high 14 saves in a win over Truett-McConnell on March 16, passing the 100 career save mark in the same game. Dixon was named the KCAC Defender of the Week for that week of March 11-17.
Gracie Spicer was named as the UHSP selection on the Champions of Character team. The Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference Champions of Character awards are given to the student-athletes and team who best represent the five core values of the Champions of Character program set forth by the NAIA: respect, integrity, responsibility, sportsmanship, and servant leadership. UHSP also received the team Champions of Character award from the KCAC.