Mullins Takes U SPORTS Player of the Year as Toronto, UBC and Guelph Share the Major Awards
Toronto’s Maggie Mullins is the best player in Canadian university hockey this year. U SPORTS confirmed it on Wednesday night at the All-Canadian Awards in Waterloo, naming the Varsity Blues star the Player of the Year, winner of the Liz Hoffman Award.
Mullins led Toronto all the way to the national final, where they lost 2-1 to UBC last weekend. She was named to the All-Canadian team too, one of 11 players honoured on the night. Toronto’s season ended one win short of gold, but Mullins still walks away with the biggest individual prize in the country.
The Rookie of the Year award went the other way. UBC freshman Mackenna Brown took the Joyce Slip Award, and she earned it on the biggest stage of all. Brown is part of the Thunderbirds side that beat Mullins’ Toronto in the final, and she was named an All-Canadian in her first year as well. UBC’s dominance ran through the whole awards night. Their head coach Geoff Matthews was named Coach of the Year, winner of the Marina Van der Merwe Award, and the Thunderbirds placed three players on the All-Canadian team: Shannon Stelling, Kenzie Girgis and Robyn Goh.
Pomeroy’s night
The most complete story of the evening belonged to Guelph. Fourth-year forward Sophie Pomeroy was named the Outstanding Contributor, winner of the Gail Wilson Award, and an All-Canadian. The award goes to the player who excels academically, in leadership, in athletic achievement and in community service, and Pomeroy ticks every box.
She led the OUA with nine goals this season and drove a Guelph attack that scored the second-most goals in the conference with 28. She captained the Gryphons to a bronze medal at the OUA championships and earned her first OUA All-Star nod along the way. Off the field, she’s a bio-medical science student with a minor in neuroscience, a U SPORTS Academic All-Canadian for three straight seasons, and a coach in Nova Scotia’s under-18 development program. She volunteers with the Giacomantonio Immuno-Oncology Lab at Dalhousie and with Motionball’s Marathon of Sport, supporting Special Olympics athletes. She’s the third Gryphon in program history to win the award.
The other All-Canadians were Kayla Batchilder of UPEI, Maeve Connorton of UVic, Imogen Ewer of Dalhousie, Sierra Blackburn of Waterloo, Mandy McIntosh of Calgary, Kathryn Carlow of York and Pomeroy of Guelph, alongside Mullins and the three Thunderbirds. OUA umpire Josh Miranda was named Umpire of the Year.
It was a fitting way to close the Canadian season. UBC took the gold, Toronto took the silver, Waterloo the bronze, and the awards night spread the honours around. Mullins got the top prize. Brown announced herself. And Pomeroy showed what a university athlete can be when the hockey’s only half the story.