ANNVILLE (PA) – Delaware Valley College senior midfielder
Bethany Pavlik (Lewes, DE/Sussex Tech) capped a career to remember by being named the 2009 Freedom Conference Field Hockey Player of the Year. She was the lone Aggie to receive first-team honors while senior forward
Danielle Heyne (Mt. Bethel, PA/Bangor), junior defender
Kate Highberger (Haddon Heights, NJ/Camden Catholic) and sophomore goalkeeper
Hollis Hancock (Philadelphia, PA/St. Basil Academy) were named to the second team.
Pavlik is the first Delaware Valley field hockey player to receive Player of the Year accolades. She was second-team honoree in both 2006 and 2007 and was also the conference's Rookie of the Year in '06.
This season, Pavlik paced the Aggies and was ranked among the Freedom leaders with 13 goals and 30 points. She is the program's career leader in assists with 28 while her 48 goals and 124 points are second on the all-time list. Pavlik also owns or shares the records goals (5) and points (11) in a game as well as assists in a single-season (11).
Heyne, Highberger and Hancock all received their first all-conference awards. For Heyne, it also caps a career that saw her finish second on the all-time list for assists with 23 and fifth in scoring with 69 points. Her last two points came on the game-tying goal in the closing seconds of regulation in Delaware Valley's 2-1, overtime loss to nationally-ranked Eastern University in the Freedom Conference semifinals. Heyne finished the season with six goals and a team-high eight assists for 20 points.
Highberger led an Aggie defense that allowed just 1.8 goals and 13.7 shots per game. In fact, opponents scored more than two goals in just five of the 20 contests. Highberger also led the squad with five defensive saves.
Hancock played every minute in goal this season and led the conference in both saves (158) and shutouts (5). Her 1.79 goals against average also ranked third in the Freedom. Hancock came up big in the postseason as she recorded 11 saves in the overtime setback to eventual conference champion Eastern.
Delaware Valley, under head coach
Carol Di Girolamo, was picked to finish sixth out of seven in the preseason conference coaches' poll. Instead, the Aggies went 10-10 overall, 4-3 and tied for third in the Freedom. The trip to the conference playoffs was the team's first since 2006.