Former Wissahickon star and University of Maryland junior Katie O’Donnell won this year’s Honda Sports Award it was announced on Thursday. The award is given to the nation’s top field hockey player, and O’Donnell won the award for her outstanding performance in the 2009 season. Voted on by over 1,000 NCAA member schools across the nation, the award automatically nominates her for the Honda Broderick Cup, an award given to the nation’s top female collegiate player.
Earlier this month, O’Donnell was named the nation’s Offensive Most Valuable Player for the second straight year, and National Player of the Year, both by womensfieldhockey.com. O’Donnell was named an NFHCA First Team All-American for the third consecutive year and the All-Mid Atlantic Region Player of the Year. She led the nation in points (87) and assists (31). O’Donnell finished the year ranked second in the ACC in goals (28), only behind teammate Nicole Muracco (31).
In November, she was received the ACC’s Offensive Player of the Year award, also for the third consecutive year, and earned the honor of ACC Tournament Most Valuable Player for her performance in the Terrapins’ march to the ACC championship.
Over the course of the 2009 season, O’Donnell broke an unprecedented number of school, conference and national records. She became Maryland’s single-season (87) and career points leader (208). She broke the ACC and Maryland career assist records and now has 74 career assists. O’Donnell is the first player in Maryland history to break 25 goals and 30 assists in a season.
With her performance this year, she earned her 200th point, making her the 24th player in NCAA history to break the 200-point mark. In the NCAA semifinals, she recorded a new Tournament record – nine points in a championship round game.
Internationally, O’Donnell has been a member of the U.S. Senior National team since 2005 and was the youngest player ever to record a cap for the U.S. team. She competed in the Junior World Cup games this past summer.
O’Donnell is an elementary education major and a recipient of the Bob and Carol Baker Director’s Circle Scholarship. In the 2008-09 academic year, she earned spots on both the ACC’s honor roll and the Maryland honor roll. Earlier this fall, she was featured as the cover story in the fall 2009 edition of the NCAA’s Champions magazine.
Other nominees for this award are Paige Selenski (Virginia), Katie Reinprecht (Princeton) and Loren Sherer (Connecticut). In addition to the honor of this award, American Honda will donate $5,000 to the university’s scholarship fund.
**This article was reproduced courtesy of the University of Maryland web site, www.umterps.com
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