ROSEMONT, Ill. – The Big Ten Champion Michigan State women’s soccer team garnered 11 different B1G Yearly Accolades as announced by the league office on Thursday, marking a program record for annual awards in a single season.
The Spartans earned four individual accolades as voted on by the league’s 14 coaches, with senior Lauren DeBeau named Forward of the Year, graduate Ruby Diodati chosen as Defender of the Year, senior Lauren Kozal announced as Goalkeeper of the Year and head coach Jeff Hosler voted as the conference’s Coach of the Year.
Hosler led MSU to its best regular-season finish in program history in 2022, booking a 14-1-3 overall record with an unblemished 9-0-1 mark in the Big Ten Conference. Hosler won the third Big Ten Coach of the Year award in program history and first since the 2000 campaign. Previous Spartan skipper Tom Saxton took home both of MSU’s prior awards in 1994, the league’s first women’s soccer season, and 2000.
Kozal booked her second-straight Big Ten Goalkeeper of the Year honor and became Michigan State’s first unanimous selection for the award, earning a spot as an All-Big Ten First Team representative in the process. Kozal has stood watch over the best defensive unit in NCAA Division I, allowing a goals-against average of 0.41 while leading the Big Ten in shutouts (10), shutouts per game (0.56) and save percentage (0.877). She becomes the conference’s third two-time recipient of the award, and just the second student-athlete to earn the accolade in consecutive seasons.
DeBeau became Michigan State’s first Forward of the Year since the award’s inception in 2011. The only previous Spartan to earn the conference’s Offensive Player of the Year award was MSU Athletics Hall-of-Famer Laura (Heyboer) Heethuis, who earned the accolade by unanimous vote of the league’s coaches. DeBeau stands tied atop the Big Ten leaderboard in goals scored with 10, ranking second in goals per game (0.59), points (23) and points per game (1.35). In the last week alone, the Shelby Township, Michigan, native logged the only MSU goals in a pair of 1-0 results over then-No. 17 Ohio State and then-No. 14 Rutgers to clinch MSU’s first official Big Ten title. DeBeau also earned a unanimous selection to the All-Big Ten First…
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