Daviana Vaka and Megan Hinnenkamp Earn All-SEC Honors

GAINESVILLE, Florida – Two from Gator soccer – Daviana Vaka (Sandy, Utah) and Megan Hinnenkamp (Kearney, Mo.) – earned All-Southeastern Conference honors, the league office announced this morning.
 
Vaka earns All-SEC first team honors. Hinnenkamp is one of three league freshmen to collect All-SEC honors, with the freshman trio all earning second-team honors.
 
Hinnenkamp shares the SEC Freshman of the Year honor with Georgia’s Summer Denigan. She is the fifth Gator to earn the honor and first since Deanne Rose in 2017. Hinnenkamp led the league’s freshmen with eight goals through regular-season play. She is also part of the SEC All-Freshman Team.
 
Here’s a look at the season notes for Florida’s 2023 All-SEC honorees:

 

First team:

Daviana Vaka – Defender –

· Southeastern Conference Defensive Player of Week after Florida’s sixth shutout of season at LSU

· Earned season opening TopDrawer Soccer National Team of the Week honors after playing entirety of shutout wins versus East Carolina and Maryland

· Earned first assist as a Gator off free kick put in by Lena Bailey versus Auburn

· Started every match at centerback, playing entirety of 16 matches

· Transferred to Florida from BYU for this season. 2023 was first season playing on backline.

 



All-SEC Second Team / SEC Co-Freshman of the Year / All-SEC Freshman Team:

Megan Hinnenkamp – Forward

· Leads Florida and SEC freshmen season high with eight goals through end of regular-season action

· Third Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Week honor after scoring first and last goals in 3-3 tie at Vanderbilt

· Earned second SEC Freshman of the Week honor after a goal in each half at Louisiana State

· Opened SEC play with a goal versus Missouri

· Two goals to open first half action versus Stetson were first scores of Gator career

· Scored opening goal of match in 1-1 tie at Kennesaw State, earning SEC Freshman of the Week honor

· Started every match

· No. 20 on TopDrawerSoccer’s Freshman rankings (as of Oct. 9, 2023)

 

In other awards announced Sunday, SEC champion Arkansas took three individual honors – Ava Tankersley (Forward of Year), Bea Franklin (Midfielder of Year) and Colby Hale (Coach of the Year). South Carolina’s Heather Hinz is the SEC Goalkeeper of the Yea and teammate Gracie Falla is Defender of the Year.

 

Hinnenkamp shares the SEC Freshman of the Year honor with Georgia’s Summer Denigan. Co-SEC Scholar-Athlete of the…