It’s been an award-winning soccer season for Surrey’s Jenna-lee Baxter.
On Tuesday, the Fraser Heights-raised midfielder was named Player of the Year in the nine-team Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC), which includes her SFU Clan.
Not surprisingly, Baxter also made the 2018 GNAC All-Conference squad, after helping the Clan tie for third place – the team’s best GNAC conference finish in eight years.
This season, heading into NCAA Division 2 playoffs, Baxter exploded for 11 goals and 10 assists in 16 games played.
On Tuesday, the SFU Clan’s Twitter account posted a video of Baxter reflecting on her final season at SFU.
WSOC | From a Div. I transfer to the 2018 @GNACSports Player of the Year, @jenna_baxter has made her mark at SFU with a little help from her friends.
Watch Jenna reflect on her career and her hopes for the upcoming GNAC Championship! #RepTheLeaf pic.twitter.com/EcCL7WW89c
— SFU Clan (@SFUClan) October 30, 2018
“The numbers Jenna consistently put up all season long, game in game out, are extraordinary,” Annie Hamel, her head coach, stated in a release.
“I pushed her out of her comfort zone by playing her as a winger this year and she still found a way to produce. I’m very happy that she got this recognition as it was well deserved.”
For her work with the team, Hamel was named Coach of the Year in her fifth season at Burnaby Mountain.
Baxter’s All-Conference team appearance is her third in as many years. She earned the honour alongside her co-leader in goals scored, North Van’s Emma Pringle, and fellow teammate Katelyn Erhardsen, who matched Baxter’s 10 assists this season. Honourable mentions went to Clan goalkeeper Nicole Anderson, defenders Allyson Dickson and Carli Grosso, and forward Christina Dickson.
In the playoffs, SFU will face top-ranked Western Washington University on Thursday (Nov. 1) in a GNAC Championship semi-final played in Portland.
• RELATED STORY: Surrey soccer player passes her way to NCAA stats leader for SFU.
Last April, Baxter was recognized by the NCAA as a statistical champ in the assists-per-game category for the 2017 season – the first time since SFU became a member of the athletic organization that a female soccer player finished atop a stats category.
Earlier, after two years with the U18 Whitecaps Girls Elite program, Baxter played the 2015 season at Oregon State University before signing on with SFU in 2016.
tom.zillich@surreynowleader.comLike us on Facebook Follow us on Instagram and follow Tom on Twitter
