A few weeks after wrapping up her career in the most successful fashion possible, leading the field hockey team to its first NCAA championship, senior midfielder Katie Reinprecht has made Princeton history again, winning the Honda Sports Award for Field Hockey on Monday evening.
The Honda Award, voted on by coaches from around the NCAA, goes to the top athlete in each of 12 women’s sports and is considered one of the highest national honors. Reinprecht is the first athlete in Princeton history to receive one.
“I wasn’t surprised at all. She is just exceptional in every way, on the field and off the field,” head coach Kristen Holmes-Winn said. “She’s a true sportswoman.”
It is not, however, Reinprecht’s first award. Reinprecht was named to four All-America and All-Ivy teams in her four years at Princeton and recently received the title of Longstreth/NFHCA Division I National Player of the Year.
Reinprecht was quick to credit her entire team for their support. She was just one member of a star-studded lineup that included four members of Team USA, including Reinprecht and her sister Julia, and won Princeton’s first national title, compiling the field hockey team’s best-ever record (21-1) along the way.
Teamwork was clearly important to Reinprecht, who set up a team-high 19 goals and finished fourth in the nation in assists. She also found the net for nine goals of her own. And, in case those offensive contributions were not enough, she also contributed tough enough defense to be unanimously voted Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year.
“Katie is just a playmaker. She knows how to collapse defenders and put her teammates in the best possible position because of that,” Holmes-Winn said. “She makes everyone around her better.”
Reinprecht, who also won Ivy Player of the Year honors in 2008 and 2009, may not be finished collecting accolades. Her Honda Award also makes her a finalist for Honda’s Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year, which has previously gone to standouts like Mia Hamm and Misty May-Treanor.
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