BEREA, Ohio -- Head Coach Reid Ayers and sophomore defender Kelly Gough (Hudson) headline the Baldwin Wallace University women's soccer team's 2014 All-Ohio Athletic Conference honors. Ayers was named the Coach-of-the Year and Gough was named the Defender Player-of the-Year as well as being selected first-team All-OAC.
Joining Ayers and Gough with All-OAC honors are junior midfielder Alex Elliott (Blacklick/IMG Academy), junior goalie Emily Tallmadge (Fairview, Pa.) and freshman forward Courtney Schutz (Mentor). Elliott was a first-team selection along with Gough while Tallmadge and Schutz each were tabbed as second-team selections. The quartet helped the Yellow Jackets to an 11-9-3 overall record, a 5-2-2 slate during the OAC regular season and into the OAC Tournament Championship match.
Ayers, who earned his second career OAC Coach-of-the-Year, in his 17th season overall and 13th at BW. He has a 128-103-29 record at BW and a 298-263-58 career mark as both a men's and women's coach. Ayers coaches both the Yellow Jacket men and women.
Gough had an outstanding sophomore season and helped both on offense and defense. Offensively, she was second on the team with seven goals and 14 points. On defense, she helped BW to record eight shutouts and allow just 1.18 goals-per-game. Overall, Gough took 33 shots, including 20 on-goal, and had a team-high four game-winners.
Elliott transferred into BW this fall and made a direct impact on the offense. She played in 18 matches, took a team-leading 64 shots, including a team-high 32 on-goal, scored a team-leading nine goals and added an assist to finish second with 19 points.
Tallmadge earned her second straight All-OAC award and her second consecutive second-team nod. She had an 11-9-3 record with eight shutouts in 23 matches and a little more than 2097 minutes of playing time. She allowed 1.20 goals-per-game, had a .780 save percentage and 99 saves. She will enter her senior season with 21 career shutouts.
Schutz had a strong initial season of collegiate soccer as she scored five goals and led the OAC with a BW single-season record 11 assists. Her 21 points led the team. Overall, Schutz was second in shots taken with 49 and shots on-goal with 27 amnd tied Elliott for the second most game-winners with three apiece.
This fall, BW started slowly with a 1-5-1 mark and then finished 10-4-2 overall its last 16 matches and into the OAC tourney title match. One full-time starter graduates. The Yellow Jackets outscored the opposition, 39-28, and outshot them, 316-234.