USL News Release

 

Thursday, August 3, 2006

 

TAMPA, FL – United Soccer Leagues announced the final four awards of the 2006 W-League season, honoring the Defender of the Year, U19 Player of the Year, Coach of the Year and Most Valuable Player as voted on by the league’s coaches and general managers.

The W-League Championship is this coming weekend in Vancouver, British Columbia. The semifinals featuring Charlotte versus Ottawa and conference rivals Seattle versus Vancouver will be Friday, August 4. The games will be live on Fox Soccer Channel at 8:00 and 10:30 pm ET. The Championship game will be Sunday, August 6 and will be broadcast at 11:30 pm ET after the FC Barcelona friendly against Chivas de Guadalajara friendly.

In her second season, the Hawks striker finished tied for second in the league in goals with 15, three times as many as last season, and was third in points with 33. She helped lead the team to the regular season conference title with a 10-2-2 record, playing in all 14 matches.

It marks the second consecutive year the award has gone to the same team with teammate Melissa Dobbyn taking the honor last year when the team played as the Detroit Jaguars.

A star at Oakland University and Mid-Continent Conference Offensive Player of the Year in 2005, Swaving provided quite a punch to the lineup with three hat-tricks during the course of the season, including a four-goal outing, as well as three game-winners.

The only player on the All-League Team representing a club that did not make the playoffs, Gaston led a defensive effort that any team would be proud of with just 17 goals allowed over the course of the season. She played in all 14 matches, missing only two minutes of action for the year and also contributing two goals and an assist to the offensive effort.

It was her second season with the Silverbacks, playing in nine games last season after previously playing for the WUSA Atlanta Beat in 2003. She played in 20 games for the Beat, notching one assist.

The 17-year old Schoepfer finished among the league leaders in scoring in her debut season in the league, finishing fourth in the league in goals with 14, third in the league in assists with nine and second overall in points with 37.

With teammate Kelly Shimmin, the Scoring and Goal Scoring Champion, she helped lead the Lady Pioneers to a 10-3-1 record in what is arguably the toughest division in the league with the defending champion New Jersey Wildcats. Two of the three losses were at the hands of the 14-0-0 Wildcats. Schoepfer scored the lone goal in both 2-1 defeats.

In his first season at the helm, Natale took a team with two relatively inexperienced strikers and guided the squad through a difficult and dangerous Northeast Division schedule, coming away with a 10-3-1 record. Two losses were only one-goal 2-1 decisions to the 14-0-0 defending champion Wildcats, who gave up just three goals during the season and scored 61. They were also two of the four occasions the Wildcats did not score three or more goals.

A former player for the Western Mass Pioneers USL Second Division team, Natale spent time previously as an assistant coach in the WUSA with the Boston Breakers in 2003 and the Philadelphia Charge from 2001-02.