BATON ROUGE – Now that preseason training camp is in full swing and members of the LSU soccer team prepare for their 2011 season opener at Memphis on Aug. 19, the writers of AllWhiteKit.com have recognized four standout Tigers as candidates for its inaugural postseason positional awards following the release of its preseason watch lists earlier this week.
Seniors Taryne Boudreau, Allysha Chapman and Natalie Martineau and sophomore Megan Kinneman are certain to receive their share of recognition throughout an anticipated 2011 campaign.
Both Chapman and Martineau are among the 50 preseason nominees for the AWK Midfielder of the Year award, while Kinneman has been selected among the 25 preseason candidates for the AWK Golden Glove Award that will be given to the nation’s top goalkeeper for 2011.
In addition, LSU’s Canadian trio of Boudreau, Chapman and Martineau are among 53 internationals from across the country garnering preseason consideration as the AWK International Player of the Year.
There will actually be seven major women’s college soccer awards released by AllWhiteKit.com after the 2011 season, which also includes such postseason awards as the AWK Coach of the Year, AWK Rookie of the Year, AWK Forward of the Year and AWK Defender of the Year. The winners of these honors will be released in early January before the announced winner of The Hermann Trophy.
AllWhiteKit.com did not consider true freshmen, redshirt freshman or internationals who have yet to play at the NCAA Division I level when putting together its preseason watch lists. Likewise, watch lists for the Coach of the Year and Rookie of the Year awards were not included in the initial release.
While each watch lists will be updated over the course of the season, three finalists for each award will be announced in December with the winners selected in a balloting by coaches, fans and AWK writers.
Fans will have the opportunity to cast their votes for each award winner as the three finalists with each are set to be featured in an online fan vote at AllWhiteKit.com. The online fan vote for each postseason honor will count as one official vote in the final balloting for AWK’s inaugural awards.