BATON ROUGE — LSU’s Mandy Heintz garnered the prestigious 2002 Louisiana Player of the Year Award on Monday and was joined by teammates Stephanie Keating and Robyn DesOrmeaux on the All-Louisiana First Team as the annual women’s soccer awards were released by the Louisiana Sports Writers Association.
“Mandy had a great year,” said LSU head coach George Fotopoulos. “She’s well deserving of this honor and I think that it is a direct reflection of our team’s success. She achieved a lot this season and that definitely goes hand in hand with how well we played as a team. I felt really strongly about our team this year and I believe that it was the best team that LSU has ever had.”
Heintz, LSU’s prolific scorer from San Antonio, Texas, was named the Louisiana Player of the Year after she finished the season as the Southeastern Conference’s leader in both goals and points and ended the regular season as the nation’s fourth-leading scorer.
The Tigers’ junior forward recorded 23 goals, added four assists and scored 50 total points as she moved into second place on LSU’s all-time records list in four categories. The second-team All-SEC selection scored four goals twice during the season and earned SEC Player of the Week honors and was named to both the Soccer Buzz Elite Team of the Week and the Soccer America Team of the Week.
“We had tremendous team success this season and with that comes all of the individual accolades,” Fotopoulos said. “This is a reflection of all of our hard work and with us having a great year it directly reflects how deserving our players are of all of these honors.”
LSU, which finished 12-5-3 and ended as the third team in the SEC West Division, placed a team-high three members on the All-Louisiana team as midfielder Keating and goalkeeper DesOrmeaux was selected.
Keating, a University of Florida transfer, earned second-team All-SEC honors and finished second in the conference with a school-record 10 assists. She accounted for 17 of the Tigers’ 56 goals and had multi-goal matches both against Louisiana-Monroe and Alabama A&M.
DesOrmeaux, a sophomore from Carencro, was named the LSWA Goalkeeper after posting a 0.86 goals against average and helping LSU’s defense lead the SEC in fewest goals allowed (14). She earned five shutouts on the season and had 56 saves while posting a 10-4-3 record.
The Tigers’ Ashley Mitnick, Artie Brown and Leigh McGovern each earned Honorable Mention accolades on Monday.
“Their (Mitnick, Brown and McGovern) worth to this program will never be fully appreciated in an accolade,” said Fotopoulos. “They have been the backbone of this team and have been just as important to this team as any other players have. I’m just pleased that we’ve had all of these players recognized for all of their hard work this season.”
2002 Louisiana Sports Writers Association Women’s Soccer Team
Player Pos. Cl. Hometown Pts.
Mandy Heintz, LSU F Jr. San Antonio, Texas 77
Kim McNally, Southeastern Louisiana F So. Prince George, B.C. 73
Stephanie Keating, LSU MF Jr. Vero Beach, Fla. 45
Allison Arnold, McNeese State F Jr. Lake Jackson, Texas 42
Katie Priest, Northwestern State D So. Raleigh, N.C. 26
Colleen Lake, Tulane MF Sr. Tyler, Texas 20
Stacy Smith, Louisiana-Lafayette F Fr. Pinehurst, Texas 18
Jill Knighten, Southeastern Louisiana F Fr. Baton Rouge, La. 17
Heather Penico, Northwestern State F Fr. River Ridge, La. 17
* Clare Springer, Loyola F Jr. New Orleans, La. 14
* Cindy Barker, Louisiana-Monroe MF Jr. The Woodlands, Texas 14
Robyn Desormeaux, LSU GK So. Carencro, La. 40
* tied for the final spot
Honorable Mention
Nellie Latiolais, Northwestern State; Ashley Mitnick, LSU; Sara Vienberg, Louisiana-Lafayette; Julia McVarish, Louisiana-Monroe; Rachel Folk, Northwestern State; Jacqui Lawrence, Northwestern State; Artie Brown, LSU; Leigh McGovern, LSU; Courtney Coutu, Southeastern.
Player of the Year – Mandy Heintz, LSU
Freshman of the Year – Stacy Smith, Louisiana-Lafayette
Newcomer of the Year – Kim McNally, Southeastern
Coach of the Year – Jimmy Mitchell, Northwestern State