Photo by: Beverly Schaefer
Five Brilliant Senior Female Athletes Named Finalists For Prestigious von Kienbusch Award
May 24, 2018 | Field Hockey, General, Women's Basketball, Women's Soccer, Women's Squash, Women's Water Polo
The Princeton University Department of Athletics has named five finalists for the C. Otto von Kienbusch Award, given annually to the top senior female athlete.
The winner of the 2018 von Kienbusch Award will be announced at the Gary Walters '67 Princeton Varsity Club Banquet on May 31.
The five finalists are Olivia Fiechter of the women's squash team, Vanessa Gregoire of the women's soccer team, Ryan McCarthy of the field hockey team, Leslie Robinson of the women's basketball team and Haley Wan of the women's water polo team.
Olivia Fiechter
An anthropology major and co-captain from Philadelphia, Olivia Fiechter moved to the top position on the Princeton women's squash leader immediately during her freshman season never moved from it. The 2015 Ivy League Rookie of the Year, she quickly showed her talent by achieving the first of four straight All-America and All-Ivy League honors. She also reached the 2015 CSA semifinal, matching the furthest a Princeton woman has gone at the individual championships since 2001.
Fiechter is only the second Princeton woman, joining Julie Cerullo '13, to claim four first-team All-America honors over the last 15 years.
Fiechter's most impressive season was undoubtedly her final one, when she overcame a debilitating back injury from 2016 to record a career-high 17 victories and lead Princeton to the No. 1 overall national ranking in the middle of the year. Memorable wins included a home victory over Trinity to complete a team comeback from 4-1 down, and a victory at Harvard over the top-ranked player in the nation. While her career victory total was held back due to injuries, her impact on younger teammates should pay dividends for Princeton for several years.
Vanessa Gregoire
The 2018 Ivy League Offensive Player of the Year for women's soccer and an anthropology major from Beaconsfield, Quebec, Vanessa Gregoire was a co-captain as the Tigers won the Ivy League championship and advanced to the NCAA quarterfinals this past fall, upsetting second-ranked and 22-time NCAA champion North Carolina along the way.
The Ivy League's coaches recognized Gregoire's abilities in facilitating in the midfield in awarding her the Ivy Player of the Year award. Her league-best eight assists this past season gave her 27 for her career, breaking a Princeton record co-held by former teammate Lauren Lazo '15 and fellow Canadian national team player Diana Matheson '08. Beyond setting up goals, Gregoire scored a few of her own during the 2017 campaign, doing so in three consecutive Ivy League games as the Tigers rebounded from a loss to Columbia to overtake the Lions for the Ivy title. Gregoire scored the only goal in a win at Penn that ended the regular season, and later that night, once Columbia tied Harvard, the outright Ivy title belonged to the Tigers.
Gregoire closed her career with a United Soccer Coaches second-team All-America honor last season as well as first-team All-East Region and a spot as a MAC Hermann Trophy semifinalist. Along with the Ivy Offensive Player of the Year award, Gregoire was a first-team All-Ivy League honoree in 2017, making it four All-Ivy honors in four years after another first-team recognition in 2015 as the Tigers made it to the second round of the NCAA tournament and two honorable mentions in 2014 and 2016.
Ryan McCarthy
A senior captain and sociology major from Madison, N.J., Ryan McCarthy helped the Princeton field hockey team to three Ivy League titles, four NCAA tournament appearances and a Final Four appearance in 2016.
McCarthy finished her final season at Princeton in remarkable fashion, earning second-team All-America honors, the first of her career. She had 17 goals and 37 points in 2017, which put her in the top 30 nationally in both categories, and she was named the 2017 Ivy Offensive Player of the Year. She also had 14 goals and 33 points as a junior, when she was named first-team All-Ivy and first-team All-Mid-Atlantic Region for the first time.
After scoring 12 goals in her first two seasons, McCarthy scored 31 times in her final two, including 10 game-winning goals the last two years after having three her first two. She sits in the program's top 10 in career points (100), combined goals and assists (57) and goals (43). She was a four-time All-Ivy honoree, including back-to-back first-team selections to finish her career.
Leslie Robinson
A two-time All-Ivy League player and sociology major from Corvallis, Oregon, Leslie Robinson was a senior captain for the women's basketball team that won both the 2018 Ivy League title and 2018 Ivy League tournament.
She completed the 2017-18 season averaging 10.2 points on 44.3 percent from the floor, along with 7.0 rebounds, 4.3 assists, 1.5 steals per game, leading to her being honored as a first-team All-Ivy selection. Her 129 assists are the sixth most in a single season in program history. Following an Ivy League all-tournament team selection, Robinson was the 34th overall pick by the New York Liberty in the 2018 Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) Draft.
As a junior, Robinson had a break-out year, averaging 10.4 points. 7.6 rebounds and 2.8 assists. She was second in the Ivy League in field goal percentage (48.1), third in offensive rebounds (77), sixth in total rebounds (221), seventh in assists (82), eighth in defensive rebounds (144) and 10th in field goals (130). Robinson completed her career with 112 games played, tied for the 10th highest in Princeton history, two Ivy titles, three NCAA tournaments and four postseason appearances.
She also had the first triple-double in Princeton basketball history.
Haley Wan
One of the greatest goal scorers in Princeton water polo history and an Operations Research and Financial Engineering major from Irvine, Calif., Haley Wan is a two-time All-American and three-time CWPA All-Conference player.
Wan led the team in scoring in each of the past three seasons, and her 75 goals and 42 assists this past season are the seventh most in a single season in program history. One of the signature games in her career came in 2018, when she registered six steals, two goals and three assists in a double-overtime victory over No. 9 Michigan, which ended the Wolverines' 20-game winning streak. She would later earn CWPA All-Conference First Team and CWPA Championship All-Tournament First Team honors.
During her time at Princeton, Wan scored 234 goals, good for the fifth highest in program history, while her 148 assists are the second most all-time. The Tigers won at least 20 games in three of her four seasons, reaching the CWPA championship game three times, highlighted by the 2015 CWPA title.
The winner of the 2018 von Kienbusch Award will be announced at the Gary Walters '67 Princeton Varsity Club Banquet on May 31.
The five finalists are Olivia Fiechter of the women's squash team, Vanessa Gregoire of the women's soccer team, Ryan McCarthy of the field hockey team, Leslie Robinson of the women's basketball team and Haley Wan of the women's water polo team.
Olivia Fiechter
An anthropology major and co-captain from Philadelphia, Olivia Fiechter moved to the top position on the Princeton women's squash leader immediately during her freshman season never moved from it. The 2015 Ivy League Rookie of the Year, she quickly showed her talent by achieving the first of four straight All-America and All-Ivy League honors. She also reached the 2015 CSA semifinal, matching the furthest a Princeton woman has gone at the individual championships since 2001.
Fiechter is only the second Princeton woman, joining Julie Cerullo '13, to claim four first-team All-America honors over the last 15 years.
Fiechter's most impressive season was undoubtedly her final one, when she overcame a debilitating back injury from 2016 to record a career-high 17 victories and lead Princeton to the No. 1 overall national ranking in the middle of the year. Memorable wins included a home victory over Trinity to complete a team comeback from 4-1 down, and a victory at Harvard over the top-ranked player in the nation. While her career victory total was held back due to injuries, her impact on younger teammates should pay dividends for Princeton for several years.
Vanessa Gregoire
The 2018 Ivy League Offensive Player of the Year for women's soccer and an anthropology major from Beaconsfield, Quebec, Vanessa Gregoire was a co-captain as the Tigers won the Ivy League championship and advanced to the NCAA quarterfinals this past fall, upsetting second-ranked and 22-time NCAA champion North Carolina along the way.
The Ivy League's coaches recognized Gregoire's abilities in facilitating in the midfield in awarding her the Ivy Player of the Year award. Her league-best eight assists this past season gave her 27 for her career, breaking a Princeton record co-held by former teammate Lauren Lazo '15 and fellow Canadian national team player Diana Matheson '08. Beyond setting up goals, Gregoire scored a few of her own during the 2017 campaign, doing so in three consecutive Ivy League games as the Tigers rebounded from a loss to Columbia to overtake the Lions for the Ivy title. Gregoire scored the only goal in a win at Penn that ended the regular season, and later that night, once Columbia tied Harvard, the outright Ivy title belonged to the Tigers.
Gregoire closed her career with a United Soccer Coaches second-team All-America honor last season as well as first-team All-East Region and a spot as a MAC Hermann Trophy semifinalist. Along with the Ivy Offensive Player of the Year award, Gregoire was a first-team All-Ivy League honoree in 2017, making it four All-Ivy honors in four years after another first-team recognition in 2015 as the Tigers made it to the second round of the NCAA tournament and two honorable mentions in 2014 and 2016.
Ryan McCarthy
A senior captain and sociology major from Madison, N.J., Ryan McCarthy helped the Princeton field hockey team to three Ivy League titles, four NCAA tournament appearances and a Final Four appearance in 2016.
McCarthy finished her final season at Princeton in remarkable fashion, earning second-team All-America honors, the first of her career. She had 17 goals and 37 points in 2017, which put her in the top 30 nationally in both categories, and she was named the 2017 Ivy Offensive Player of the Year. She also had 14 goals and 33 points as a junior, when she was named first-team All-Ivy and first-team All-Mid-Atlantic Region for the first time.
After scoring 12 goals in her first two seasons, McCarthy scored 31 times in her final two, including 10 game-winning goals the last two years after having three her first two. She sits in the program's top 10 in career points (100), combined goals and assists (57) and goals (43). She was a four-time All-Ivy honoree, including back-to-back first-team selections to finish her career.
Leslie Robinson
A two-time All-Ivy League player and sociology major from Corvallis, Oregon, Leslie Robinson was a senior captain for the women's basketball team that won both the 2018 Ivy League title and 2018 Ivy League tournament.
She completed the 2017-18 season averaging 10.2 points on 44.3 percent from the floor, along with 7.0 rebounds, 4.3 assists, 1.5 steals per game, leading to her being honored as a first-team All-Ivy selection. Her 129 assists are the sixth most in a single season in program history. Following an Ivy League all-tournament team selection, Robinson was the 34th overall pick by the New York Liberty in the 2018 Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) Draft.
As a junior, Robinson had a break-out year, averaging 10.4 points. 7.6 rebounds and 2.8 assists. She was second in the Ivy League in field goal percentage (48.1), third in offensive rebounds (77), sixth in total rebounds (221), seventh in assists (82), eighth in defensive rebounds (144) and 10th in field goals (130). Robinson completed her career with 112 games played, tied for the 10th highest in Princeton history, two Ivy titles, three NCAA tournaments and four postseason appearances.
She also had the first triple-double in Princeton basketball history.
Haley Wan
One of the greatest goal scorers in Princeton water polo history and an Operations Research and Financial Engineering major from Irvine, Calif., Haley Wan is a two-time All-American and three-time CWPA All-Conference player.
Wan led the team in scoring in each of the past three seasons, and her 75 goals and 42 assists this past season are the seventh most in a single season in program history. One of the signature games in her career came in 2018, when she registered six steals, two goals and three assists in a double-overtime victory over No. 9 Michigan, which ended the Wolverines' 20-game winning streak. She would later earn CWPA All-Conference First Team and CWPA Championship All-Tournament First Team honors.
During her time at Princeton, Wan scored 234 goals, good for the fifth highest in program history, while her 148 assists are the second most all-time. The Tigers won at least 20 games in three of her four seasons, reaching the CWPA championship game three times, highlighted by the 2015 CWPA title.
Players Mentioned
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