2015 All-Conference Teams
Empire 8 conference champions Stevens Institute of Technology placed ten players on the all-conference teams and won three of the four 2015 yearly awards. Junior
Raba Nassif earned Offensive Player of the Year,
Zisi Komar garnered Rookie of the Year honors and
Head Coach Jeff Parker and his staff were tabbed as the Coaching Staff of the Year. Ithaca junior
Amiee Chimera was voted the Defensive Player of the Year.
Nassif is the first Stevens player to earn Offensive Player of the Year honors. She put together a stellar season for the Ducks’ as she scored 15 goals and registered 17 assists to lead the conference with 47 points to date. She has registered at least one point in 14-of-19 games played, including a hat trick against Elmira and four goals scored against Hartwick. In the final game of the regular season, Nassif became the second player in Stevens’ program history to reach the century mark for points scored in a career.
Chimera anchored a defensive unit that limited the opposition to less than one goal per game (0.71) and was part of seven shutouts. She also recorded the first two goals of her career, which came in the first game of the season. Chimera started all 19 games to help the Bombers post a 13-4-2 overall record and 6-0-2 mark in league play which secured the second seed in the E8 tournament. Despite not winning the E8 title, Ithaca earned an NCAA at-large bid and will be making its 13th consecutive national tournament appearance. Chimera is Ithaca’s sixth defensive player of the year since the conference started the award in 2006.
Komar made an immediate impact on the Ducks’ field this year. She started 19-of-20 games and stands second on the team with 45 points on a conference best 18 goals and nine assists. She tallied at least one point in every game but one, including seven multi-goal games. Komar’s Rookie of the Year honors marks the fifth time in the last six years a Stevens player has been recognized.
Jeff Parker, in his 16
th season as the head coach, and his coaching staff have kept the Ducks’ competing at a high level throughout the season which is evident by the consistent ranking in the national NSCAA poll. The 2015 season saw Stevens earn the top seed in the conference tournament and win the E8 title for the first time since 2011. With the conference win, Stevens earned the NCAA automatic bid to the national tournament and will be making it’s eighth appearance in program history.
In addition to the yearly awards and all-conference teams, one member of each team was named that institution’s representative on the 2015 Women’s Soccer Sportswoman of the Year Team. Empire 8 emphasizes that "Competing with Honor and Integrity" is an essential component of a student-athlete’s experience in conjunction with an institution’s educational mission. These honorees have distinguished themselves and consistently exhibit the critical traits as outstanding sportswomen.