April 4, 2007

George Mason junior defender Laura Salichs was named first-team All-State while junior forward Rachel Wiggins was named to the All-State second team in voting done by the Virginia Sports Information Directors (VaSID) as announced late last week. It was the first such honor for both players.

Salichs, a first-team All-CAA player, had a superb season for the Patriots. She was third on the team with three assists and in addition to the two first-team honors, she was also CAA Player of the Week and she was selected to the Soccer Buzz National Elite Team of the Week for the week ending Oct. 8.

Wiggins, a second-team All-CAA player, set career highs for goals, assists and points as she had nine goals, five assists and 23 points. She was fourth in the CAA in points, fifth in assists and sixth in goals. She was also named to the D.C. Invitational All-Tournament Team. She is tied for 10th all-time at Mason in career points and she is two goals shy of the career top-10 goals scored list.

The Colonial Athletic Association dominated the VaSID awards as seven of the 11 first-team players were from the CAA while seven of the 11 second-team players also hailed from the conference. The Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year and Coach of the Year all went to representatives of the CAA as Claire Zimmeck of William & Mary won the top honor, Cory Julien of James Madison was the Rookie of the Year and John Daly of William & Mary was Coach of the Year.

The Tribe had three players on the first team and three on the second team while Old Dominion had two on the first team while Mason and VCU each had one. James Madison had three players on the second team, joining the Tribe's three and Mason's one. The only other schools with multiple players selected were Virginia, with three chosen to the first team and two chosen to the second team, and Liberty, which had one player named to the first team and one to the second. Radford had one player chosen to the second team to round out the group of 22 players.