2021 D3soccer.com Women's All-America teams

(l. to r.) Forward of the Year Julia Keogh, Midfielder of the Year Riley Cook, Defender of the Year Gabby Cesarone and Goalkeeper of the Year Haley Eiser. Photos (l. to r.): Kevin Colton/William Smith Athletics, CNUPhotos.com, Danny Reise/WashU Bears, CNUPhotos.com

The 2021 season has come to a close, and now that the new men's and women's champions have been crowned, the eleventh D3soccer.com All-America teams are ready for release. The women’s teams were chosen by D3soccer.com staff informed by analytics, input from Division III soccer coaches, other knowledgeable sources, and our own viewing. Of the nearly eleven thousand young women to appear in at least one contest during the 2021 season, we started with a pool of roughly five hundred candidates from All-Conference honorees. From this pool of players, a “short list” of nearly one hundred candidates were chosen for All-American consideration, and our teams were selected from that elite group.

Thirty-three players representing twenty institutions—two for the first time (McDaniel and Wesleyan)—and sixteen different conferences have been named to the three All-America teams. Three of this year's honorees repeat from prior seasons. As usual, most of the selections are seniors (22) including five fifth-year students and one graduate student. Only seven juniors were named, the same as our 2019 team, the fewest since the inaugural year of the awards in 2010. Our All-America teams are rounded out with three sophomores, and as is customary, no first-year players were selected; we've only chosen three in the past eleven years.

Three “super seniors” and a traditional fourth-year senior were our Players of the Year. For just the second time, two of the four come from the same team, national champion Christopher Newport.

The D3soccer.com Forward of the Year is Willaim Smith fifth-year Julia Keogh. She is the second Heron forward and the seventh overall to receive Player of the Year recognition. William Smith is now tied with Messiah for the most D3soccer.com Player of the Year awards. While defense has traditionally been the Heron's strong suit, this season the Liberty League Player of the Year led an offensive juggernaut. William Smith's 3.82 goals per game was fourth nationally and second only to Misericordia among teams with upper tier schedule strength. Keough set William Smith single season records with 22 goals and 50 points, accounting for one third of William Smith’s goals. A highly efficient attacker (25% goals per shot and netting 62% of shots on goal), Keogh scored at least one goal in 16 matches, had five multi-goal games, and notched a team leading six game-winners. In a fitting example of Division III student-athlete philosophy, Keogh was named 2021 National Scholar Player of the Year by the United Soccer Coaches, adding to her many accolades.

Another fifth-year, Riley Cook of National Champion Christopher Newport is the D3soccer.com Midfielder of the Year after appearing on our first team as a forward in both 2018 and 2019. Cook is the second Captain to earn this recognition following teammate Gabby Gillis, our 2018 Midfielder of the Year. The C2C Offensive Player of the Year, despite moving into the midfield in her final season, continued to lead the Captain offense with 24 goals, including 10 game winners (second in D-III), and 53 points. In the NCAA Tournament, Cook’s performance reached nearly unfathomable stratospheric levels. She scored in all six matches, including five game-winning goals. She is the first soccer player in the history of NCAA Championship Soccer at any level, men's or women's, to achieve that feat. No surprise then that Cook was named NCAA Tournament's Most Outstanding Offensive Player. Also, in December she was recognized by the United Soccer Coaches as Division III National Player of the Year to capstone a remarkable season.

Washington University senior Gabby Cesarone has earned the D3soccer.com Defender of the Year award, joining two previous Bears who have received a D3soccer.com Player of the Year award: Lillie Toaspern, 2014 Midfielder of the Year and Lizzy Crist, Goalkeeper of the Year in both 2015 and 2016. With Cesarone, the repeat UAA Defensive Player of the Year, anchoring the backline, the Bears yielded a paltry 5.1 shots per game on average, with only 2.3 on target, despite playing the most challenging schedule in Division III (.658 strength of schedule). Their defense ranked eleventh nationally in goals-against average (0.41), allowed no multi-goal games, and recorded 11 shutouts (58%). Additionally, she scored three goals, all in the NCAA Tournament, and recorded three assists on the season. Defensively the Bears led UAA conference play with four shutouts, yielded only three goals resulting in a conference leading 0.42 goals-against-average en route to winning their third-consecutive outright UAA title.

The Goalkeeper of the Year award belongs to fifth-year Haley Eiser, also of national champion Christopher Newport, joining teammates, Midfielder of the Year Riley Cook and second team D3soccer.com All-American defender, Jill McDonald. She owns the single season and career records at Christopher Newport for goals-against average, save percentage, wins, shutouts, and minutes played. The Captain netminder led the nation in save percentage with a .931 mark. She also had the second-best goals against average in the nation. In 22 games, Eiser recorded 14 solo shutouts, which tied her for first in the nation and was a new CNU record. During the NCAA tournament while teammate Riley Cook was getting it done on the offensive side of things, Eiser also stepped up to the challenge. She improved on her already impressive entering marks. And, she had work to do; from the Sweet Sixteen through the National Championship, she faced 57 shots (14 per game) and saved 20 of 21 shots on goal, a .952 save percentage.

In a somewhat non-traditional, but well-deserved choice, the D3soccer.com women’s Coach of the Year is Jen Simonetti, of Case Western Reserve, who led the Spartans to their most successful season in program history. In 2021 they recorded an overall record of 16-2-2, a UAA mark of 4-1-2, good for second; advanced to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen; and finished 12th in the D3soccer.com Top 25, each all-time program bests. Coach Simonetti has led a remarkable turnaround for CWRU in the most difficult conference in women’s soccer. She became CWRU head coach in July 2019. In the ten years before her arrival, the Spartans averaged 1-5-1 in the UAA and 8-8-2 overall. In her first year, 2019, the Spartans set a program record for wins and made the NCAA field for only the second time in program history. This season, they blew past those marks with three added wins for another program best and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen. In her first two seasons the Spartans have cumulative win percent of .500 / .782 (UAA / overall), dramatic improvements over the .236 / .519 marks of the previous ten years.