WOLFVILLE, N.S. (U Sports) – Arielle Roy-Petitclerc, a fourth-year midfielder from Laval University, was named U Sports player of the year in women’s soccer, Wednesday night. 

Roy-Petitclerc, from St-Nicolas, Que., became the third Laval player to claim the Chantal Navert Memorial Award, joining 2007 recipient Francine Brousseau and 1996 recipient Marie Claude Dion. 

Other national award winners announced during the All-Canadian Banquet held at the Festival Theatre on the Acadia University campus were UQAM defender Julia Liguori, who was named rookie of the year; Victoria midfielder Sarah Douglas, who received the Student-Athlete Community Service Award; and UOIT head coach Peyvand Mossavat, who was honoured  by his peers for the second time in his career. 

The 2016 CIS championship gets underway Thursday at Acadia University’s Raymond Field and concludes Sunday with the national final at 4:30pm Atlantic Time. All 11 games from the eight-team tournament will be webcast live on Bell Alliant Fibe TV 1.

Official championship website: http://english.cis-sic.ca/championships/wsoc/index

CHANTAL NAVERT MEMORIAL AWARD (player of the year): Arielle Roy-Petitclerc, Laval 

Arielle Roy-Petitclerc was awarded the Chantal Navert memorial prize, given to the U Sports player of the year. She became the third representative of the Rouge et Or to be so honoured, following in the footsteps of Francine Brousseau (2007) and Marie-Claude Dion (1996). 

The midfielder finished in a tie for first place among the scorers of the RSEQ university league, with 18 points, including 10 goals in 14 games. Moreover, Roy-Petitclerc was named player of the game on six different occasions.   

Member of the RSEQ’s first all-star team each of her playing years at Laval, she was also – during the last three seasons – named to the second Canadian all-star team. Rookie of the year in 2013, she had, the following year, hugely contributed to the Rouge et Or’s first ever Quebec title.     

The Quebec native was also a key player for the Canadian team that competed in the 2015 summer Universiade in Gwangju, South Korea. As a member of the starting team, Roy-Petitclerc was a huge factor in Canada’s fourth-place finish, the best ever showing by Canada at these world university games.  

Strikers Jordan Smith from Calgary and Jessie Noseworthy from Memorial, along with UOIT defender Kylie Bordeleau were the other nominees.

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Julia Liguori, UQAM 

Julia Liguori had a phenomenal rookie season, scoring five goals and adding three assists, an exploit for a defensive player. Named Citadins’ Athlete of the week twice, the Accounting student was the only player on the team to be on the field for each of the 1260 minutes this season. 

Julia distinguished herself with her all-around excellent play, but also for her great versatility. After playing the first 10 games at defense, her coach asked her to play forward in the most important game of the season. Trailing 1-0 at halftime, the team absolutely needed a goal to win the game. The 20-year old responded by setting up the tying goal, and then by scoring the winning goal a few minutes later.

Two days later, she started the game as a forward, but had to move back to defense to replace her injured teammate Dafné Roldan at the 37^th minute. Not only did she excel on defense, but she also scored the winning goal of that game on a penalty. Those two crucial wins were a major factor in the Citadins’ first trip to the playoffs since 1998.

“Julia can play many positions because she’s super talented and super intelligent,” says her coach Alexandre Da Rocha. “Her rookie of the year award is fully deserved, being an unanimous choice. The Citadins are thrilled that Julia chose UQAM to study and play soccer.”

Midfielders Rhiannon Kissel from UOIT, Nicole Torraville from Memorial and defender Talia White from Calgary were the other nominees for the award.

STUDENT-ATHLETE COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARD: Sarah Douglas, Victoria 

Sarah Douglas is a top biomedical engineering student, who maintains an A- average (7.26/9 or 3.7/4) while competing for the Vikes. On top of her very demanding course load, Douglas also dedicates any spare time that she has to volunteer in many different capacities. 

She is currently the VP Communications for the UVic Pre-Medical Club. She is currently working with the First Nations Indigenous Students at UVIC to plan workshops for aboriginal students. 

It has been a long-term goal of Sarah's to help inspire aboriginal youth to consider medicine and engineering as career pathways. She is currently working on a venture where current UVic medical engineering students would travel to aboriginal communities to talk about their experiences and to share information about the programs. 

“Sarah is a tremendous role model as a U Sports student-athlete. She is a four-time CIS Academic All-Canadian, as well as a fantastic soccer player. She is passionate about academics, athletics and genuinely wants to help people. Our world will be a better place because of people like Sarah.” 

Defenders Allison Pilon from Laurentian and Lisa Perret from McGill, along with Dalhousie striker Scarlett Smith were also nominated.

COACH OF THE YEAR: Peyvand Mossavat, UOIT 

In only the fifth season since the inception of the program, Peyvand Mossavat has led the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) women’s soccer team to claim both the program and school's first OUA banner.  

To get to the final four, UOIT won their first OUA East Division title in school history posting a 13-2-1 record, featuring an offence that led the nation in scoring with 60 goals in 16 conference games. The Ridgebacks defensive unit was just as impressive holding opponents to just nine goals.

After the historic season, Mossavat was named OUA East Division Coach of the Year for the second time in the past three seasons. This is the fourth time Mossavat has won the award, previously bringing home the honours in 2012 with UOIT and in 2007 while coaching the Ryerson Rams. 

He was also named U Sports coach of the year in 2014, after leading the Ridgebacks to an OUA bronze medal and to their first national championship appearance in school history. 

In October, Mossavat was appointed head coach of team Canada for the 2017 Summer Universiade in Chinese Taipei. 

“It is truly remarkable what Peyvand and his coaching staff has done,” said UOIT athletic director Scott Barker. “When we decided to start the women’s soccer program five years ago we could have never imagined to have this much success so quickly. He had a vision for what he wanted the Ridgeback soccer program to become and worked tirelessly to achieve that goal.” 

The other nominees were Trinity Western coach Graham Roxburgh, Helder Duarte from Laval, and Mike Power from Memorial.

ALL-CANADIAN TEAMS:

The all-Canadian teams were also announced on Wednesday. 

Joining the U Sports player of the year Arielle Roy-Petitclerc and conference MVPs Jordan Smith, Kylie Bordeleau, and Jessie Noseworthy on the first team were goalkeeper Ally Williamson from Trinity Western, defender Mélissa Roy from Laval, midfielders Abby Hunt from Windsor, Alyssa Armstrong from Cape Breton, Hannah Rivkin from Memorial, along with strikers Nour Ghoneim from York and Marie-Ève Jacques from Sherbrooke. 

The second unit for 2016 is includes Laval goalkeeper Marie-Joelle Vandal, defenders Jenna White from Western and Aman Shergill from UBC, midfielders Marie-Yasmine Alidou D’Andjou from UQAM, Katherine Koehler-Grassau of UOIT, Mercy Myles of StFX,  Kinsella Noseworthy-Smith from Acadia, and Marilyn Grammenopoulos of York and strikers Jasmin Dhanda of UBC, Monika Levarsky of UFV, and Joëlle Gosselin from Laval, who round out the team.

U SPORTS WOMEN’S SOCCER: 2016 AWARDS & ALL-CANADIANS 

Chantal Navert Memorial Award (player of the year): Arielle Roy-Petitclerc, Laval

Rookie of the year: Julia Liguori, UQAM

Student-Athlete Community Service Award: Sarah Douglas, Victoria

Coach of the year: Peyvand Mossavat, UOIT

First Team All-Canadian

Second Team

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