BY CALEB SCOTT
ADA — The Ohio Northern women's soccer team posted its 13th consecutive winning season in 2016 under 13th-year head coach Mark Batman.
The Polar Bears posted a 15-4-0 record and went 8-1-0 in the Ohio Athletic Conference, while winning the OAC Regular Season title and advancing to the OAC Tournament Championship finals for the second consecutive season.
This was the 11th consecutive season Ohio Northern has qualified for the OAC Tournament, and 12th OAC Championship appearance.
Northern saw eight players earn All-OAC honors in 2016 as seniors Michaela Gutierrez (Moon Township, Pa./Moon Area), Shelby Stephens (Cypress, Tex./Cypress Woods), Missy Ward (Columbus/Westerville North), and Haley Napier (Beavercreek/Beavercreek), juniors Hannah Reich (Howell, Mich/Howell) and Anna Niemeyer (Loveland/Loveland), and freshmen MeaganGrierson (Miamisburg/Miamisburg) and Haley Moses (Mason/William Mason) all earned All-OAC accolades.
Grierson led the list as she earned Freshman of the Year and Goalie of the Year honors for the conference.
The Polar Bears also placed nine athletes on the Academic All-OAC list.
Stephens, Napier, Ward, and seniors Ellie Schmalzl (Walton, Ky./Ryle) and Rachel Weigman (Pickerington/North), Niemeyer and junior Brianna Gruber (Middleburg Heights/Holy Name) and sophomores Sarah Puntel (Strongsville/Strongsville) and McKenna Welsh (Wester ville/Bishop Hartley) all earned the honor for Northern.
Stephens, Gutierrez and Ward all earned All-Great Lakes Region honors as Stephens earned First Team honors and Gutierrez and Ward were named Second Team All-Great Lakes Region.
Stephens was also recognized as a National Soccer Coaches Association of America Third Team Scholar All-American, the fourth NSCAA Scholar All American in women's soccer history.
Stephens, Gutierrez, Ward and Grierson were also each named Ohio Coaches Soccer Association First Team All-Ohio.
Stephens was also named OCSA First Team Academic All-Ohio, while Ward, Napier and juniors Hannah Reich (Howell, Mich.) and Niemeyer each earned OCSA Second Team Academic All-Ohio accolades.
Northern opened the season with six straight victories and climbed to No. 15 in the second weekly NSCAA poll.
"This team has a lot to be proud of," said head coach Mark Batman. "They faced some adversity early on, losing two returning starting forwards before the first game of the season, and the depth really showed during the course of the season as we used quite a few players all year long.
The Polar Bears opened the OAC season 1-1, before winning its final seven regular season OAC contests to claim the OAC Regular Season title.
ONU defeated Baldwin Wallace 2-0 in the OAC Tournament semifinals before falling to Mount Union in the OAC Tournament Championship, even though the Polar Bears were dominant in every statistical category.
The team finished with a team GPA of 3.4 for the fall semester, twelve shutouts, a regular season conference championship and an RPI of 47 out of 433 Division III Women's Soccer teams nationally.
"We also had three seniors graduate early and will be moving on before May, which we are very proud of," said Batman. "The senior class exemplified what it means to Be a Champion all season and left the standard extremely high for the girls returning in the fall as well as the new players who will join our family. The program is in a great place and we are very excited to see what the future holds for this talented group."
