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Rio Grande's Hannah Halstead was named to the All-RSC Women's Soccer First Team and was also named the RSC Defensive Player of the Year. Amora Albano (top middle) and Jitske De Muijnk (top right) were also First Team honorees, while Abi Seals (bottom middle) and Alba Vilades Marin (bottom right) were Second Team picks.
Rio Grande's Hannah Halstead was named to the All-RSC Women's Soccer First Team and was also named the RSC Defensive Player of the Year. Amora Albano (top middle) and Jitske De Muijnk (top right) were also First Team honorees, while Abi Seals (bottom middle) and Alba Vilades Marin (bottom right) were Second Team picks.
Posted: Nov 06, 2024

Halstead tops Rio's All-RSC honorees

Rio Grande/RSC Sports Information
     MIDDLETOWN, Ohio - The 2024-25 All-River States Conference Women's Soccer Team includes five standouts from the University of Rio Grande, including the league's Defensive Player of the Year.
     The team and major award winners were announced Wednesday by the conference office.
     Rio's Hannah Halstead was named the league's top defender and was joined on the all-conference first team by a pair of her teammates - sophomore forward Amora Albano (Albany, OH) and junior midfielder Jitske De Muijnk (Nymegen, The Netherlands).
     The RedStorm also placed senior Abi Seals (Chillicothe, OH) and senior goalkeeper Alba Vilades Marin (Barcelona, Spain) on the all-conference second team.
     Each of the three all-conference teams, which were determined through balloting of the league's head coaches, consisted of two goalkeepers, four defenders, four midfielders, and four forwards.
     Regular season conference champion Oakland City University was well-represented on the first team, taking six of the 14 spots and placing nine players total on the three teams.
     Brescia and IU East both put two players on the first team and joined Rio Grande with a total of five players represented.
     All 10 RSC teams placed at least one player on the three teams, with nine of the 10 seeing at least three players recognized - a testament to the parity much of the league experienced during the 2024 season.
     Halstead, a junior center back from Delaware, Ohio, played a major role in helping Rio Grande to a first round bye in the RSC Tournament.
     Halstead never came off the field for the RedStorm, and her coach credited her "1-v-1 defending, vision of the field, and distribution" in her nomination.
     Albano finished as the RedStorm's top scorer with nine goals and three assists for 21 points, despite missing the team's final four games after being called up to military service.
     De Muijnk ranked second on the team in goals scored (6) and points (15), while leading the team with five assists.
     Albano and De Muijnk had two game-winning goals each.
     Seals started each of Rio's 18 games and was part of a defense that - outside of losses to Tennessee Southern, Grace (Ind.) and Georgia Gwinnett - allowed just 13 goals in 15 games.
     Vilades Marin played all 1,620 minutes in goal for head coach Brooke Perkins' team, recording a .704 save percentage and six shutouts.
     Joining Halstead, Albano and De Muijnk on All-RSC First Team were goalkeepers Kylie O'Leary from Indiana University East and Yaiza Ramos of Oakland City; defenders Geneva Hann of Brescia, Grace Harris from IU East and Paula Roldan of Oakland City; midfielders Lobna Bouchkir and Jana Mueller from Oakland City and Stheisy Lemus of WVU Tech; and forwards Linn Adolfsson-Funk and Macey Woolcock of Oakland City and Maci Uffelman from Brescia.
     Along with Seals and Vilades Marin, the Second Team included IU Kokomo goalkeeper Kailee Moore; defenders Libby Hyett from Oakland City, Isabelle Riddle of Shawnee State and Ava Wittrock from IU East; midfielders Evie Clare from Midway, Madison Culp of Shawnee State, Zaryah Griffin from IU East and IU Kokomo's Kelsi Hoot; and forwards Haylee Applegate of Midway, Mackenzie Gibbons from IU Kokomo, Alice Thoren of Oakland City and Kennedy Trigg from St. Mary-of-the-Woods.
     The All-RSC Third Team was made up of goalkeepers Sandra Garcia Quilez of WVU Tech, Mallory Gilley from IU Columbus and Ashby Greenwell of Brescia; defenders Claire Favre of Shawnee State, Chloe Field from St. Mary-of-the-Woods; Holly Johnstone of Midway and Oakland City's Alejandra Ortiz; midfielders Duda Feres and Victoria Poon of Brescia, Kaiya Bogers from IU Kokomo and IU East's Morgan Grudich; and forwards Carson Barr and Nora Martin-Mora Segura from WVU Tech, Lucie Ashkettle of Shawnee State and St. Mary-of-the-Woods' Lois Carr.
     Woolcock took home both the Offensive Player of the Year award and the overall Player of the Year award. She scored 12 goals and assisted on seven more in her first season at Oakland City, helping the Mighty Oaks to an undefeated record in conference play.
     The native of Essex, England scored in five of Oakland City's nine conference games, including two goals against WVU Tech and a goal and two assists against Rio Grande.
     Mueller was honored by the RSC as its Newcomer of the Year, joining the Mighty Oaks as a freshman from Nierstein, Germany. The midfielder scored nine goals and assisted on seven more in her first season in the conference and was involved in at least one goal in seven of Oakland City's nine matches.
     Oakland City's Jamie Bladen was named the RSC Coach of the Year after guiding the Mighty Oaks to the top of the conference in his first year at the helm. One season removed from not competing, the Mighty Oaks were dominant in River States Conference play, going 9-0 to enter the conference tournament as the top seed.