For the second year in a row, Seattle Reign FC finished the regular season at the top of the league. With sustained success comes recognition as six members of the Reign FC family have been named as finalists for the 2015 NWSL Awards.
Kim Little herself in familiar territory, and alongside teammates Jess Fishlock and Beverly Yanez for the NWSL Most Valuable Player award. Little worked her magic a year after winning the 2014 honor, scoring ten goals and assisting on seven others in her 20 matches.
Fishlock’s defensive presence and eight goals scored made her a nightmare for opposing coaches, and Yanez picked up the offensive slack left by departed 2014 Reign FC players with nine goals in her first full Seattle season. Golden Boot winner Crystal Dunn of Washington Spirit and runner-up Christen Press of the Chicago Red Stars round out the top five.
Both Kendall Fletcher and Lauren Barnes headline the Defender of the Year ballot after cementing Reign FC’s stout backline. The two also contributed to the offensive attack as well as Fletcher tallied two goals and two assists while Barnes notched one goal and two assists. Alongside them for NWSLDOY is FC Kansas City’s Becky Sauerbrunn and Amy Lepeilbet as well as Chicago Red Stars Julie Johnston.
Three of the four teams facing off in the NWSL Semi-Finals on Sunday boast Coach of the Year finalist. Laura Harvey of the 2015 Shield Winners Reign FC, Vlatko Andonovski of FC Kansas City and Mark Parsons of Washington Spirit are all up for the award.
All NWSL players are available for selection in the NWSL Best XI category, which will make the full results of the fan vote pretty interesting.
Fan voting ends September 11, so hop to it.
Fans are also encouraged to support their favorite players on social media using the hashtags: #NWSLMVP, #NWSLDOY, #NWSLGOY, #NWSLROY, #NWSLCOY and #NWSLBestXI.
All 2015 NWSL Award winners will be announced in the days leading up to the NWSL Championship game on Thursday, Oct. 1, which kicks off in Portland at 6:30 p.m. PT and airs on FOX Sports 1. Below is the complete awards announcement schedule.
2015 NWSL Awards — Announcement Schedule:
Monday, Sept. 14: Rookie of the Year (#NWSLROY)
Wednesday, Sept. 16: Goalkeeper of the Year (#NWSLGOY)
Friday, Sept. 18: Coach of the Year (#NWSLCOY)
Monday, Sept. 21: Defender of the Year (#NWSLDOY) presented by Coppertone®
Wednesday, Sept. 23: MVP (#NWSLMVP)
Thursday, Sept. 24: Best XI (#NWSLBestXI)
