Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Ashleigh Johnson Named WaterPoloWorld Female Player Of The Year For 2015
January 14, 2016 | Women's Water Polo
Ashleigh Johnson waited until 2016 to earn her biggest honor of 2015.
Johnson, a Princeton senior-in-waiting, has been named the Female water polo Player of the Year by WaterPoloWorld. That's Player of the Year for the whole world, not just college and not just the U.S.
The men's winner was Filip Filipovic of Serbia.
Johnson, who is taking this academic year off to train with the U.S. national team for the Olympics, set NCAA tournament records for saves in a game and tournament while helping Princeton to a sixth-place finish last spring.
She then went on to have a huge summer in international water polo, including helping the U.S. to gold medals at the Pan Am Games and World Championships.
From the WaterPoloWorld story:
In the women's competition Johnson beat Brazilian leader Izabella Chiappin and Dutch sensation Maud Megens for the win. Just over 2,000 votes were made worldwide for the women in the months of November and December of 2015. The 2015 World Championships Best Goalkeeper received a total of 561 votes just beating Brazil's Chiappini who got 528. Dutch international Megens settled for 3rd place with 473 votes. Johnson will receive her trophy in February.
Ashleigh Johnson experienced her international break-through in 2015, although in 2014 Johnson's name became more and more known outside the US, especially following the Top Goalkeeper honours she received at the 2014 FINA World Cup where she still split time in the net. The 2013 World Junior Championships gold medallist and tournament Top Goalkeeper made headlines at the 2015 World Championships in Kazan where she stood out for Team USA en route to a deserved goal medal completing a successful year in which she also recorded 17 saves in USA's win of the Pan American Games and won the FINA World League Super Final. But with her performance in Kazan she made name for herself emerging as one of the standouts of Team USA which resulted not only in a gold medal win but Johnson also was awarded Gold Medal match MVP and tournament Top Goalkeeper.