The Northern Collegiate Hockey Association Women’s Conference announced the 2019-20 season award winners, including Player of the Year, Coach of the Year, Freshman of the Year, All-Conference team and All-Freshmen team.
The 2019-20 Player of the Year is Kelly O’Sullivan, a senior defensemen at Adrian College. The Inverness, Ill., native leads the Bulldogs on both sides of the ice, finishing the regular season in a tie at the top of the NCHA scoring chart with 20 points (4G/16A). Defensively, she helped the Bulldogs post a 0.56 goals-against average in league play, allowing just nine goals in the 16-game slate. She has accumulated 25 points overall on the season (4G/21A), tied for fifth-most in all games, and her 21 assists is the most in the conference. Defensively, she scored 50 percent more (25 to 16) than the second-highest point total.
“Kelly is one of the best student-athletes I have ever had the privilege to coach,” head coach Shawn Skelly said. “Her work ethic on and off the ice speaks for itself while having the drive to be the best is second-to-none. She also carries a 3.45 GPA and has been on the All-Academic Team three years running. NCHA Player of the Year is the most prestigious award in our conference and she could not be more deserving of this award because of how good of a season she has had. Not only was she tied for the league lead in points as a defensemen, but she dominates every game, all over the ice. Her hockey IQ makes her so good and she can out-think anyone on the ice.”
It’s the fourth straight season O’Sullivan has earned All-NCHA honors. The team captain also looks to close out her career adding CCM Hockey/American Hockey Coaches Association First Team West All-American accolades to her resume for an amazing fourth consecutive season.
“She leads our program by example on a daily basis and as her coach, I couldn’t be more proud of Kelly for being the NCHA Player of the Year,” Skelly said. “She also has a legitimate opportunity this year to become the first athlete in the 150 years of Adrian College Athletics history in any sport, male or female, to be a First Team All-American four years in a row.”
The league coaches also voted for Freshman of the Year, selecting Adrian forward Une Bjelland. She is enjoying a highly-successful year one on the ice for the Bulldogs, currently the highest-scoring freshman in the NCHA (9-20-29), while also ranking third overall on the scoring list. She tied for the league lead in scoring in conference play, finishing with 20 points on 5 goals and 15 assists.
The 2019-20 Coach of the Year is Adrian’s Shawn Skelly, who led the Bulldogs to the Kronsch¬nabel Trophy and the top seed in the Slaats Cup Playoffs. This is the first time Skelly has won the award, leading the Bulldogs to a 14-1-1 NCHA record (making them 29-2-3 in his two seasons as head coach), with Adrian finishing the regular season 21-3-3 overall, ranked No. 9 in the uscho.com national poll.
The Bulldogs again dominated the All-NCHA Team, placing all six regular starters on the squad. Goalie Denisa Jandova is a repeat all-league honoree, headlining the league GK spot with impressive statistics. She posted a 0.55 goals-against average in 767:44, allowing just 7 goals in league play. Her .973 save percentage (251 saves) was tops, finishing 11-1-1 on the season with 7 shutouts. Overall, her league-leading GAA of 1.12 ranks ninth in the NCAA and save percentage of .952 comes in eighth heading into the remainder of the postseason. Her eight shutouts ranks second and includes four in a row at one point, helping her earn NCHA Defensive Player of the Week honors three times this season.
Brianna Buchanan, Nicole Guagliardo and Jessica VonRuden all make their first-ever appearances on the all-league team, with the trio helping lead an offense that currently ranks sixth in the nation – and first in the NCHA – at 4.11 goals-per game (in NCHA-only games, that number jumped to 4.69 gpg).
Buchanan tallied 19 points (13-6-19) in NCHA games, while Guagliardo (10-10-20) and VonRuden (8-12-20) tied for the league lead. Overall, Guagliardo paces the NCHA in scoring with 33 points (16G/17A), with Buchanan right behind at 30 (19G/11A). That duo also account for the No. 1 and No. 2 goal-scorers in the league.
O’Sullivan’s line partner on defense, Rylee Bates, rounds out the list of Bulldogs on the all-league squad. The senior had a breakout campaign, finishing with 10 points in league play (2-8-10) and a career-high 16 (4G/12A) overall.
St. Scholastica’s Rachel Anderson makes a repeat appearance on the all-league squad at forward, finishing the conference season with 16 points (4G/12A). St. Norbert’s Eve Parker is the lone freshman to be honored, joining the squad at forward after leading the Green Knights with 20 points overall (10G/10A), with 13 of them (7-6-13) coming in league play. Lake Forest’s Sydney Simone, a 2017 All-Freshman selection, rounded out the list of forwards. Simone tallied 11 points (6G/5A) in league play and is the team’s leading scorer overall with 17 points (9G/8A).
LFC teammate Jordan Trapp was honored, as was fellow Saint Greta Nundahl, to round out the defensive selections. Nundahl is a two-time honoree, repeating from her junior campaign.
A tie in voting produced a trio of all-league goalies, with Aurora’s Chiara Pfosi and Concordia’s Breanna Thomson completing the entire list. Pfosi (1.87 GAA in NCHA games) was named NCHA Defensive Player of the Week on four occasions this season. Thomson finished third in league-only games in both GAA (1.54) and save percentage (.946).
2019-20 Women’s NCHA All-Conference Team
Forward: Rachel Anderson, College of St. Scholastica (Jr./Shoreview, Minn.) 2019 All-NCHA
Forward: Brianna Buchanan, Adrian College (Sr./Livonia, Mich.)
Forward: Nicole Guagliardo, Adrian College (Sr./Hoffman Estates, Ill.)
Forward: Eve Parker, St. Norbert College (Fr./Verona, Wis.)
Forward: Sydney Simone, Lake Forest College (Sr./Plymouth, Minn.) 2017 All-Freshman
Forward: Jessica VonRuden, Adrian College (So./Owatonna, Minn.)
Defense: Rylee Bates, Adrian College (Sr./Northville, Mich.)
Defense: Greta Nundahl, College of St. Scholastica (Sr./New Brighton, Minn.) 2019 All-NCHA | 2018 All-NCHA
Defense: Kelly O’Sullivan, Adrian College (Sr./Inverness, Ill.) 2019 All-NCHA | 2018 All-NCHA | 2017 All-NCHA | 2017 All-Freshman
Defense: Jordan Trapp, Lake Forest College (Jr./Brooklyn Park, Minn.) 2018 All-Freshman
Goalie: Denisa Jandova, Adrian College (So./Vejprnice, Czech Republic) 2019 All-NCHA | 2019 All-Freshman
Goalie: Chiara Pfosi, Aurora University (Jr./Ipsach, Switzerland)
Goalie: Breanna Thomson, Concordia University Wisconsin (Sr./St. Marys, Ontario)
-Additional goalie due to tie in voting
2019-20 Women’s NCHA All-Freshman Team
Forward: Une Bjelland, Adrian College (Stavanger, Norway)
Forward: Lauryn Hull, College of St. Scholastica (Kimberly, Wis.)
Forward: Eve Parker, St. Norbert College (Verona, Wis.)
Defense: Lauren Arnholt, St. Norbert College (Germantown, Wis.)
Defense: Mak Cooke, Aurora University (Merritt, British Columbia)
Defense: Karya Dean, Lake Forest College (Missoula, Mont.)
Goalie: Annalina Van Hercke, Concordia University (Castle Rock, Colo.)
-Additional defense due to tie in voting
2019-20 NCHA Player of the Year: Kelly O’Sullivan, Adrian College
2019-20 NCHA Freshman of the Year: Une Bjelland, Adrian College
2019-20 NCHA Coach of the Year: Shawn Skelly, Adrian College
*Information in this post from a press release by the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association*
*Feature Image from Adrian Athletics/Sports Information*