Matheson, Schmidt, Henritze named Ivy Players of the Year

After helping fellow Tigers achieve Ivy League Player of the Year status with her adept passing during her freshman and sophomore years, senior midfielder Diana Matheson of the women's soccer team finally received the league's highest honor herself.

Matheson is the fifth Tiger to win the award in the last seven years and only the third ever to be named to four All-Ivy teams.

Matheson's strong finish to the season is especially impressive given her absence in the first seven games of the season while playing for Team Canada in the Women's World Cup. She returned to start the last 10 games, leading the team with six goals and seven assists; she finished the season averaging 1.9 points per game, well ahead of the nearest challengers.

For her career, Matheson had 26 goals and 26 assists, becoming the first 20-20 player in Princeton soccer history.

Schmidt takes her third

Last year, senior midfielder Paige Schmidt joined Liz Fagan, Amy MacFarlane and Ilvy Friebe as Princeton's only two-time winners of the Ivy League Player of the Year award in field hockey; this year, Schmidt advanced to a class of her own, winning the award for the third consecutive time.

Schmidt was a unanimous selection, notching nine goals and five assists while starting all 18 games for Princeton. She anchored an unrelenting defense, leading the Tigers to a third consecutive league title.

Perhaps an even greater honor, Schmidt was named a second-team All-American for her performance this season. In her past two seasons, Schmidt was named to the third team.

Schmidt was invaluable to the Tigers this year, often performing her best in the most stressful of situations. On Oct. 20 at Harvard, a 0-0 deadlock held until the 3 minute, 12 second mark in overtime, when Schmidt's shot on a penalty corner was redirected for the winning goal.

On Nov. 2 at Penn, Schmidt scored the first two goals en route to a 3-1 Tiger victory that secured the Ivy League title. And while her career ended on a sad note with a loss to UMass in an NCAA play-in game, Schmidt registered Princeton's only goal in the 2-1 loss.

Henritze honored by league

An unprecedented sweep of conference opponents led to numerous accolades for the women's volleyball team, and junior outside hitter Parker Henritze led the way with her first Ivy League Player of the Year award.

Henritze was also named first-team All-Ivy along with teammates junior blocker Lindsey Ensign and junior setter Bailey Robinson. Henritze led the Ivy League in kills and aces this season on her way to a unanimous selection as Player of the Year.

Henritze was second on the team with 3.45 digs per game, and she also averaged .35 blocks and .27 assists per game. Her numbers improved in league games, in which she averaged 5.21 kills and 3.79 digs per game. In games against the league's three next best teams (Dartmouth, Penn and Yale), Henritze's numbers ballooned to 5.73 kills and 4.08 digs per game.

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Henritze is now a three-time All-Ivy selection and is the first Princeton women's volleyball player ever to earn both the Ivy League Rookie of the Year and Player of the Year awards.