WASHINGTON — Massachusetts and Saint Joseph’s, the top two seeds for the A-10 championship, combined to sweep the major Atlantic 10 field hockey awards, which were announced Friday. The five major accolades, along with the All-Conference teams, the All-Rookie team and the All-Academic team, were selected based on regular season play.
 
Saint Joseph’s Lily Santi was named A-10 Offensive Player of the Year. UMass’ Paula Lorenzini and Myrte van Herwijnen were chosen as the Defensive Player of the Year and Goalkeeper of the Year respectively. Minutewomen freshman Elani Sherwood was the Rookie of the Year and her bench boss, Barb Weinberg was named Coach of the Year. The major awards, All-Conference Teams and All-Rookie Team were voted on by the A-10’s head field hockey coaches. The All-Academic team was selected by the field hockey media relations directors.
 
Santi leads the Atlantic 10 and is 12^th nationally in points per game, registering 2.11 points a game for the fourth-ranked Hawks. A graduate student from Oceanport, N.J., she is also second in the A-10 in goals per game with .78, which is 16^th nationally. The versatile forward is also tied for third in the A-10 in assists with .56 per game. It’s the second A-10 Offensive Player of the Year honor for Santi, who also claimed the award in the 2022 season.
 
A graduate student defender from Mendoza, Argentina, Lorenzini helped anchor a defense that allowed just three goals in conference play. She helped UMass tie for the A-10 lead and rank sixth nationally with eight shutouts during the regular season. She also helped lead the Minutewomen to a ninth-place ranking nationally in goals against average, second in the A-10, allowing 1.14 goals a game. Lorenzini also has scored six goals and tallied three assists for 15 points this season.
 
A three-time Atlantic 10 Defensive Player of The Week as a goalkeeper, van Herwijnen leads the A-10 and ranks fourth in the NCAA in save percentage (.804). She also is second in the A-10 and ranks 12th nationally in goals against average (1.12). The junior was the National Defensive Player of the Week on Oct. 8 and was an honorable mention the following week. van Herwijnen ranks second in the A-10 and ninth nationally goalie win-loss percentage and is tied for the lead in shutouts in the A-10 with seven. 
 
A two-time Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week, Sherwood has nine goals and four assists on the season. She scored twice in a rout of Dartmouth, and tallied two assists versus Boston University. A forward from Surbiton, England, Sherwood’s biggest contribution this season might have been the overtime game winner she buried in the cage versus then No. 6 Saint Joseph’s, a win that led to an A-10 regular season title and A-10 Championship top seed.
 
Weinberg earns her second A-10 Coach of the Year honors after leading the Minutewomen to its first perfect league season at 7-0 since 2013 and their first A-10 regular season title since 2014. The UMass head coach since 2016, Weinberg has the Minutewomen ranked 15^th nationally with a winning percentage of .778 that’s seventh-best nationally. A 2005 graduate of the University of Iowa, Weinberg was a member of the U.S. Women’s National Team from 2005-10 serving as a Team USA Goalkeeper.
 
The awards were announced following the semifinals of the 2024 Atlantic 10 Field Championship that took place on Thursday. The championship final is at noon Saturday between No. 1 Massachusetts and No. 2 Saint Joseph’s with an NCAA bid on the line. The game will be streamed live on ESPN+.