McCarthy, Bacskai and Tornetta Pick Up Major Ivy Awards; Nine Tigers Named All-Ivy

PRINCETON, N.J. – The Princeton Tigers were all over the major Ivy League field hockey awards and earned nine All-Ivy selections, the conference announced today.

Ryan McCarthy was honored as the Ivy League Offensive Player of the Year, while Maddie Bacskai was named the conference's Defensive Player of the Year. Julianna Tornetta as selected as the Ivy Co-Rookie of the Year while Carla Tagliente earned Coach of the Year accolades.

Those three players were picked first-team All-Ivy and unanimous choices as well. Three more Tigers were second-team All-Ivy in MaryKate Neff, Sophia Tornetta and Elise Wong. Grace Baylis, Nicole Catalino and Clara Roth nabbed honorable mention All-Ivy.

Princeton's nine honorees are tied for the second most in program history. The 2012 squad earned 10 All-Ivy selections. This season is the fifth time that the Tigers have had nine selections to the conference teams (1994, 1996, 2009, 2010).

McCarthy has been nothing short of extraordinary in her last two seasons, culminating in her Offensive Player of the Year award. The senior captain has 15 goals and 32 points in 2017, which puts her in the top 30 nationally in both categories. After scoring 12 goals in her first two seasons at Princeton, McCarthy has registered 29 tallies since the beginning of her junior campaign. She sits in the program's top-10 in career points (95), combined goals and assists (54) and goals (41). She is the fifth Tiger in the last six seasons to earn the Offensive Player of the Year award. McCarthy is now a four-time All-Ivy player, the last two years earning first-team honors.

With one of the top defenses in the country, Princeton boasts many key contributors on a team that is 14th nationally in shutouts per game (0.29) and 16^th in goals-against-average (1.41). Bacskai, Catalino, Wong and Baylis have all been crucial cogs on that unit for the 2017 Ivy League Champions.

Princeton earned five shutouts this season where were Dartmouth, then-No. 24 Boston University, Columbia, Northeastern and then-No. 15 Harvard. Perhaps the team's best defensive performance of the season came against Harvard. Prior to the contest, the Crimson came in as the highest scoring offense in the Ivy League and the fifth best in the NCAA. The Crimson finished with just four shots on goal. The Tigers also pitched a shutout streak of over 248 minutes during the season.

Bacskai has added three goals, while Wong has scored once this year for the Tigers. Baylis has picked up 41 saves in 17 games and a .631 save percentage for Princeton.

For the second time in three seasons, a Tornetta sister been picked as Ivy League Rookie of the Year (Sophia, 2015), as Julianna finished second on the team with 23 points (five goals, 13 assists). Tornetta's .76 assists per game are sixth in the country and led the Ivy League. Her 1.35 points per game was 10th in the conference. The freshman had two multi-goal games and four multi-assist performances including a season-best three helpers vs. Cornell (Oct. 28). Her signature contest was two-goal, two-assist day at Brown (Oct. 14).

For the third time in her career, Sophia Tornetta received an All-Ivy selection as she posted four goals and two assists for 10 points in 2017. After one point in her first 11 games, the junior captain has nine in her last six outings. She sits with 61 career points in 48 games as she has amassed 20 goals and 21 assists.

Being a freshman hardly stopped MaryKate Neff from making an impact as she finished second on Princeton with seven goals in 2017. She began the season with a defensive save vs. then-No. 1 North Carolina (Sept. 1) and broke out offensively with three points vs. then-No. 22 Rutgers (Sept. 8). The first-multi-goal outing of her career came vs. Columbia (Oct. 14). She finished the regular season with a goal in six meetings and was fourth on the team with 16 points.

Clara Roth is currently on a seven-game point streak, collecting 16 points during that span. She has six goals and 11 assists this season, good for 23 points overall for Princeton. Her first collegiate goal came against the defending national champion, Delaware (Sept. 3) before back-to-back contests with a tally at Maryland (Sept. 19) and at Dartmouth (Sept. 23). Roth's first multi-goal game at Brown (Oct. 14) where she also added two assists.

2017 is the third time that Carla Tagliente has been selected as a conference Coach of the Year, the first in the Ivy League. The former UMass coach was the A-10 Coach of the Year in 2012 and 2013. The No. 14 Tigers have an RPI of 12 and has faced arguably the hardest schedule in Division-I. Princeton opened the year with six straight ranked teams. Since beginning the season 1-4, the Tigers have two separate four-game winning streaks and have rattled off 10-of-12 victories.

Princeton (11-6, 7-0 Ivy) takes on No. 4 Virginia (15-4, 5-1 ACC) to open the NCAA Tournament on Saturday (Nov. 11) at 2 p.m.

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