Trinity Western’s Rachel Hutchinson was named the Canada West Rookie of the Year after she scored five goals and added six assists to finish in a tie for fourth in the conference in points and first amongst rookie athletes.
Along with Hutchinson, the Spartans had five players named to Canada West all-stars, with goalie Ally Williamson, midfielders Vanessa Kovacs and Ali Oliverio and forward Krista Gommeringer named first team all-stars and striker Seina Kashima named a second team all-star.
Gommeringer has been named a Canada West first team all-star in each of her first four years with the Spartans, while this is Kovacs’ third consecutive year as a first team all-star and Williamson’s second time named a first team all-star and third all-star nomination overall. While with UBC, Williamson, who transferred to TWU in 2014, was a second team all-star in 2011 and a first team all-star in 2013.
After being held off the scoresheet in her first five games, Hutchinson, who started 12 of her team’s 14 regular season contests, exploded for three goals in an 18-minute span against Alberta to launch an impressive nine-game run to end the year. Hutchinson, who is studying biology, finished the regular season with points in seven of TWU’s final nine games, including a three-assist effort against Manitoba.
“Rachel had a fantastic first year and gave us an offensive spark out wide,” said Spartans coach Graham Roxburgh.
“She had the ability to finish and the ability to cross and create lots of chances for her teammates. She really had an excellent first year in terms of contributing offensively while also working hard on the defensive side of the ball.
“… when she scored that hat-trick, I think it brought her to life and since then, she has been one of our more dangerous players.”
After earning two game-winning goals in the regular season, Hutchinson followed that up with the game-winner in a 1-0 win over Alberta in the Canada West regional playoffs.
Hutchinson is the sixth Spartans women’s soccer player to be named Canada West Rookie of the Year, following in the footsteps of Carlee O’Brien (2003), Nikki Wright (2008), Alicia Tesan (2009), Krista Gommeringer (2012) and Seina Kashima (2014). Current Spartans goalie Ally Williamson also won the award in 2011, when she was with UBC, prior to transferring to TWU in 2014.
“We’ve always been mostly excited about team success and when you recruit players who have the ability to be some of the better players on the team, it bodes well for team success,” said Roxburgh, whose current team has four of the last five Canada West Rookie of the Year award winners.
“Obviously without the team doing well, Rachel probably doesn’t win that award, but a large part of her contributions have helped our team do well. So, it’s a great honour to have that many rookies of the year and we’ll just keep trying to recruit not only the best players, but also the right people.”
