adminCollin Matiza Sports Editor
TALENTED United States-based Zimbabwean female field hockey player Rachel Goromonzi was walking on cloud nine on Wednesday when she was named as the Eastern College Athletic Conference Division II Offensive Player of the Year. Goromonzi (22) is a senior attacking player at South Carolina’s Limestone College where she has shone like a beacon for their women’s field hockey team this season in which she scored an astonishing 18 goals which saw her capping off her tremendous Limestone career with ECAC Offensive Player of the Year honours.
The ECAC is a college athletic conference comprising schools that compete in 19 sports (15 men’s and 17 women’s). It has 303 member institutions in the United States’ National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Divisions I, II, and III, ranging in location from Maine to North Carolina and west to Missouri. And on Wednesday, the ECAC Division II named their most outstanding women’s field hockey players for the 2014 season and Zimbabwean Goromonzi topped the list by being named as their Offensive Player of the Year.
Goromonzi led the ECAC with 18 goals this season; five more than any other player, and ranked second in the league with 10 assists. Goromonzi began the season red-hot, scoring 13 goals in her first nine games of the season and finished the year with seven game-winning tallies.
According to reports from South Carolina, the Limestone College field hockey team continued to show its national prowess by earning ECAC Division II Field Hockey Offensive Player, Defensive Player and Coach of the Year honours as announced by the league office on Wednesday.
Limestone College’s senior attack Goromonzi from Zimbabwe took home Offensive Player of the Year award while senior defender Rufaro Mushavi, also from Harare in Zimbabwe, earned the Defensive Player of the Year accolade.
Mushavi took home the Defensive Player of the Year honours after leading a Limestone defence that allowed a league-low 19 goals this season, 12 less than any other team.
The senior anchored a Saints back-line that began the season with five consecutive shut-outs and recorded eight on the season.
Both Zimbabwean players were led by Coach of the Year in their head coach at Limestone College, Lindsay Jackson.
Goromonzi and Mushavi also earned First-Team All-Conference honours and were joined by midfielders Rebekah Baker and Casey Werkheiser as well as defender Kathleen Sigwart.
The awards would not stop there as the Saints put an additional three players on the Second-Team All-Conference. Jill Funkhouser, Stembeni Zhanda from Zimbabwe and freshman Brooke Zimmerman rounded out the All-Conference team honorees for the Saints.
Goromonzi earned Offensive Player of the Year as she has anchored a stout Limestone College offense that put up 50 goals on the season. She led the ECAC with 18 goals, 10 assists and 46 total points on the season.
Her teammate at Limestone College Mushavi played her way to Defensive Player of the Year by leading a Blue and Gold defence that only allowed 19 goals on the season while posting nine total shut-outs on the year, setting a programme record.
Online Reporter