Aug. 11, 2010
ST. LOUIS, Mo. - Senior forward Danielle Toney (Northville, Mich.) and sophomore midfielder Christine Nairn (Arnold, Md.) were named to the Missouri Athletic Club's Hermann Trophy Watch List for the 2010 season on Wednesday.
The Lions were one of 10 teams who had multiple student-athletes named to the 45-player list. Five schools (Boston College, UCLA, Notre Dame, Portland and Stanford) had three representatives, while Penn State joined Memphis, Florida State, Oklahoma State and reigning national champion North Carolina each had two.
The Nittany Lion pair gave Penn State the only multi-representative Big Ten school on the list. Cassie Dickerson of Ohio State, Michigan State's Lauren Heyboer and Jennie Clark of Minnesota were the Big Ten's other nominees.
Sophomore Christine Nairn is one of the top midfielders in the country. |
Toney and Nairn were each 2009 All-Big Ten First Team honorees with Nairn a unanimous choice to that distinction as well as the Freshman of the Year award in the Big Ten. Narin was on the watch list last season, while Toney makes her first appearance in her senior campaign. Toney (13 goals, 6 assists, 32 points) was Penn State's second-leading scorer in 2009 while Nairn led the team in assists (10) and third in scoring (7 goals, 24 points).
Penn State has placed at least two student-athletes on the preseason watch list in each of the four years of head coach Erica Walsh's tenure in Happy Valley. Last season, striker Katie Schoepfer was a Hermann Trophy semifinalist, the school's first since defender Ali Krieger was named to the same honor in 2005. PSU has had five runners-up to the final award and one winner (Christie Welsh, 2001) along with four semifinalists.
Voting for the M.A.C. Hermann Trophy will be conducted in late November where 15 semifinalists are selected. From there three finalists are chosen and a winner named during a news conference on Jan. 7, 2011 at the M.A.C. in St. Louis.
The No. 13 Nittany Lions kicked off the second week of preseason workouts on Wednesday in preparation for Saturday's scrimmage at Villanova (3:00 p.m.). Penn State hits the road for its season opener on Friday, Aug. 20 at No. 23 West Virginia for the first of five road games in the team's opening seven games. The preseason Big Ten predictions are expected later this week as the 12-time defending Conference champions look for No. 13.
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--NITTANY LIONS--