The Penn State Nittany Lion field hockey team, 2022 Big Ten Co-Champions and tournament top-seed, dominated this year’s All-Big Ten teams as announced today by the Big Ten Conference. Junior Sophia “Phia” Gladieux has been named both Big Ten Player of the Year and Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year while Nittany Lion Head Coach Char Morett-Curtiss has been named Big Ten Coach of the Year. The Nittany Lions have four players on the first team All-Big Ten squad and one on the second team.
For Morett-Curtiss, this marks the seventh time she has been honored as Big Ten Coach of the Year since the Lions joined the Big ten conference in 1992. This is her first Coach of the Year honor since 2016. Morett-Curtiss, in her 36th year at Penn State is the only coach Penn State has ever had in the Big Ten.
Gladieux becomes Penn State’s first Big Ten Player of the Year since Kiley Kulina earned the honor in 2001. She is the sixth overall. She is also Penn State’s first Offensive Player of the Year since Moira Putsch in 2017 and the ninth overall. Gladieux has 43 points this season off 20 goals and three assists. She heads into the Big Ten Tournament 50 goals and seven assists for 107 career points. This is the third straight year she has been named to the All-Big Ten first team as well. Gladieux was Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week once this season and a Penn State Athletics Athlete of the Week.
Penn State has four first team All-Big Ten honorees in 2022, the most sine the squad had six in 1998. Joining Gladieux on the first team are Midfielder Mackenzie “Mack” Allessie, Goalkeeper Brie Barraco, and Elena Vos. Graduate midfielder Anna Simon has been named to the second team All-Big Ten squad as well.
Allessie has been named to the first-team All-Big Ten team for the fourth straight season and second at Penn State. Allessie has 38 points off 11 goals and a team-best 16 assists. She enters the Big Ten Tournament with 51 goals and 38 assists for 140 points for her career. Allessie has been a two-time Penn State Athlete of the Week recipient this year. She transferred from Ohio State after her sophomore season where she was the Buckeyes top scorer. She has been a great asset to the Nittany Lions.
Barraco has been named to the first team All-Big Ten for the first time in her career. An outstanding goalkeeper, she has a 1.14 goals against average with a lofty .782 save percentage, nabbing 68 of Penn State’s 73 saves. She also has four shutouts this season. Barraco enters the tournament this weekend with 327 career saves and 13 shutouts. Barraco earned Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week honors earlier this year and was Penn State Athletics Athlete of the Week.
Vos has been named to the first team All-Big Ten squad for the first time after earning second team All-Big Ten laurels twice before. Vos has nine points off nine assists this season. She enters the 2022 Big Ten Tournament with 24 career points, all off assists. Vos was recently honored as Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week as well.
Simon has been honored as second team All-Big Ten for the second time in her career. She has 22 points this year off eight goals and six assists and currently has 111 career points off 46 goals and 19 assists. Simon was just honored as both Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week as well as Penn State Athletics Athlete of the Week.
Senior Midfielder Meghan Reese was also honored as Penn State’s Big Ten Sportsmanship Award winner. Reese has six points off three goals this year and will roll into the Big Ten Tournament with 21 career points off eight goals and five assists. Reese was tri-captain this year alone with Allessie and Vos.
The Nittany Lions will receive the first round bye and play the winner of the Iowa/Michigan game at 1:30 p.m. on Friday.
