Leshnak, Catrine named Players of the Year, lead list of eight Polar Bears named All-Ohio Athletic Conference in Women's Soccer for 2020-21

By Tim Glon

| 2020-21 Women's Soccer All-OAC Team (.pdf) |

ADA — Eight Ohio Northern student/athletes were named All-Ohio Athletic Conference in women's soccer for 2020-21 in voting conducted by the league's 10 head coaches.

Senior Sydney Leshnak (Cincinnati/Mount Notre Dame) was named the OAC Defender of the Year and junior Kristy Catrine (Springboro) was named the OAC Goalkeeper of the Year.

Leshnak is one of three field players to be named the Player of the Year at her position for three consecutive years in OAC history.

ONU has now had the Goalkeeper of the Year for five consecutive seasons after Megan Greirson became the OAC's first-ever 4-time position player of the year award winner from 2016-19.

Senior Siena Ward (Newport Beach, Cal./Newport Harbor) and freshman Bri Straus (Fishers, Ind./Hamilton Southeastern) and joined Leshnak and Catrine as First Team All-OAC selections.

Senior Abigail Mathews (Liberty Township/Lakota East) and freshman Alex Hoeffel (Continental) were named Second Team All-Conference.

Junior Carissa Beckham (Mason/Mount Notre Dame) and freshman Jill Roberts (Bellbrook/Carroll) were Honorable Mention all-OAC honorees.

Leshnak is a four-time All-OAC pick (1st Team in 2018, 2019, 2020 and Honorable Mention in 2017) and is a two-time All-Great Lakes Region selection.

She has started all 78 matches in her career and has eight goals, six assists and 22 points from her defensive position to her credit.

Catrine allowed only one goal this season and set the ONU school record with a scoreless streak of 1,010 minutes to begin her career.

She had 31 saves, eight shutouts and a 0.09 GAA this season, her first as a starter.

Ward led the Polar Bears in scoring this season with four goals and eight points. She also had a team-best three game-winning goals this year.

In 69 career matches, Ward has 13 goals, two assists and 28 points.

Straus started all 11 matches on defense in her rookie year.

Mathews is a three-year starter in the midfield and is also an Academic All-OAC honoree in 2018.

In 72 career matches, she has four goals, six assists and 14 points.

Hoeffel was second on the team in scoring this season with three goals, one assist, seven points and two game-winning goals.

She started all matches as forward as a freshman in 2020-21.

Beckham is a two-time All-OAC honoree after earning Second Team kudos as a sophomore in 2019. She is also an Academic All-OAC award winner.

She has one goal, two assists and four points in 45 career matches.

Roberts is the third freshman to be named All-Conference for Ohio Northern this season and did so as a forward.

She started all 11 games up front and had one assist on the year.

The Polar Bears finished the season 8-1-2 overall and shared the OAC Regular Season title with an 8-0-1 mark under 17th-year head coach Mark Batman.