UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Penn State women’s soccer program has announced its team awards for the Fall 2021 season.
Five Nittany Lions were voted by their peers for the fall team awards. The fall award winners for Penn State were as follows:
Offensive MVP: Sam Coffey
Defensive MVP: Ellie Wheeler
Co-Freshmen of the Year: Riley Gleason and Mieke Schiemann
Rodney Swineford Award: Kerry Abello
Coffey was last season’s Rodney Swineford Award recipient and 2019’s Co-Offensive MVP alongside Ally Schlegel. Coffey started all 21 games for the Nittany Lions last season, notching eight goals and eight assists. She became the 50th player in NCAA Division I soccer history to score 40 goals and tally 40 assists in her career.
In Fall 2021, Coffey earned her second All-American distinction and garnered first-team All-Big Ten and first-team All-North Region honors.
Coffey now plays for the Portland Thorns in the NWSL.
Wheeler was last season’s team Freshman of the Year after she started all 16 games in her first season in Happy Valley on the back line. In the fall, Wheeler started 15 of 16 games and scored two game-winning goals. She helped the PSU defense in four shutout performances and to the Nittany Lions’ 27th straight NCAA Tournament appearance.
Gleason and Schiemann were named Co-Freshmen of the Year. Gleason played in 11 games and scored her first career goal vs. Minnesota. Schiemann started 15 of 16 games on the backline. Both played crucial minutes in PSU’s NCAA Tournament run that led to the Nittany Lions’ fifth consecutive Sweet-16 appearance.
Abello was named by her team as the recipient of the Rodney Swineford Award. The Rodney Swineford Award is given to the player who most embodied the values and pillars of Penn State women’s soccer on and off the field.
A team captain alongside Coffey and Schlegel, Abello started 20 of 21 games in the fall. She scored two goals and three assists and collected her third All-Region honor of her career. For the second year in a row, she was named the CoSIDA Women’s Soccer Academic All-American of the Year and garnered her fourth Academic All-America recognition.
Abello now plays for the Orlando Pride in the NWSL.
Follow along with the team on our social media pages on Facebook (PSUWomen’sSoccer) and Twitter/Instagram (@pennstatewsoc).
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