Hoover Does It Again: Franklin & Marshall Star Repeats as Centennial Offensive Player of the Year
Twenty goals. Forty-one points. And now the same award two years running.
Franklin & Marshall senior Caitlin Hoover has repeated as the Centennial Conference Offensive Player of the Year, the league announced on Tuesday. She’s only the seventh player in conference history to win multiple Player of the Year honours, and the second Diplomat to do it after Erin Coverdale in 2017 and 2018.
Hoover didn’t just lead the Centennial in goals. She tied for the lead in points too, and she did it while rewriting her own school’s record book. Her 63 career goals and 143 career points are both Franklin & Marshall records now, overtaking assistant coach Erin McCormick. She set the goals mark in a 4-0 win over McDaniel in September and passed McCormick for points in October’s 2-0 win over Bryn Mawr. Seven career hat-tricks, another program record, including two three-goal games in September against Susquehanna and Montclair State. Six multi-goal games this season alone.
Nationally she’s tied for 13th in goals per game at 1.11 and 29th in points per game at 2.31. She’s a returning NFHCA First Team All-American, and she’s played like one all year.
Fosbenner and Sarno take the other big prizes
Ursinus senior defender Rachel Fosbenner is the Defensive Player of the Year. She’s only the second Bear ever to win it, after Maeve Montgomery last year, which tells you something about the standard Ursinus are setting at the back. Fosbenner is a four-time All-Centennial selection and this is her first time on the first team. Her coaching staff were named Co-Coaching Staff of the Year too.
Swarthmore freshman goalkeeper Josie Sarno is the Rookie of the Year. Freshman keepers don’t usually walk into this league and win major awards. Sarno did.
The team honours
Franklin & Marshall landed five players on the All-Centennial teams. Hoover, junior midfielder Megan Dadio and senior goalkeeper Meghan Dole all made the first team. Dadio has been an all-conference player three years running and tied for the league lead in assists with eight, while Dole led the conference in goals against average at 0.68 and shared the save percentage lead at .809. Senior forward Hannah Fitzgerald made the second team for a second straight year after also tying for the assists lead, and junior midfielder Maya Rorick earned honorable mention for the second year in a row.
The Diplomats finished 14-5 and reached a fifth straight Centennial semifinal. They spent every week in the NFHCA Division III poll, peaking at No. 7.
Johns Hopkins, the champions, had six honorees, the joint second-highest total in program history. Caeli Robinson and Ada Farmer made the first team, Sophia Albano and Sarah Chilton the second, Aubrey Kilgore and Kaitlin Coward earned honorable mention, and Emi Hakutani made the All-Sportsmanship Team. Albano scored both goals in the 2-1 semifinal win over Franklin & Marshall and was named tournament MVP after Hopkins beat Swarthmore 3-0 in the final for an eighth straight title.
The season’s over for most of these sides now, but not all of them. Johns Hopkins are still dancing in the NCAA Tournament after a 2-0 first-round win over Denison, and they meet Stevenson in the second round on Saturday. Hoover’s college career is done, though. She leaves as the best goalscorer Franklin & Marshall have ever had, and the Centennial have now said so twice.
