UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Senior captain Sam Coffey and sophomore Ally Schlegel have been named to the 2020-21 MAC Hermann Watch List announced Thursday by the United Soccer Coaches.
The MAC Hermann Trophy is awarded annually since 1967, and honors the United Soccer Coaches National Players of the Year in NCAA Division I men's and women's soccer based on voting conducted by NCAA Division I coaches.
The No. 12 overall pick in the recent NWSL draft, Coffey returns to the MAC Hermann watch list as she was included on the 2019 watch list to begin the season. Coffey was a semifinalist for the award in 2018 as a member of Boston College.
Coffey earned United Soccer Coaches Scholar All-America honors in 2019 and earned first team All-North Region and first team All-Big Ten honors. She was also named to the TopDrawerSoccer Best XI second team.
Coffey's 11 goals and 10 assists totaled 32 points, good for second in the Big Ten. Coffey's 34 career assists is tied for fourth on the NCAA active career leaders prior to the 2020-21 season.
The reigning Big Ten Freshman of the Year, Schlegel led the conference in points in her first season of competition with 33 in 2019. Schlegel tied for the league lead with 13 goals and was tied for sixth with seven assists.
Schlegel was tabbed second team All-North Region and named to the TopDrawerSoccer Best XI second team. She also earned first team All-Big Ten honors and was named to the Big Ten All-Freshman team. Schlegel's 13 goals last season were the most for a Nittany Lion since 2015 when Megan Schafer netted 13 goals in the Nittany Lions' run to the National Championship.
In program history, two Nittany Lions have won the MAC Hermann Trophy: Christie Welsh was the program's inaugural winner in 2001 and Raquel Rodriguez was the program's most recent winner in 2015. The most recent semifinalist for the award was Kaleigh Riehl in 2018. In total, the Nittany Lions have had 18 semifinalists, finalists or winners of the MAC Hermann award.