Atlantic University Sport has announced the 2022 women's soccer all-stars and major award winners as selected by the conference's 10 head coaches following regular season play.
Leading the list of winners for the Tigers is head coach Cindy Tye who has been selected as Coach of the Year by her peers. This is the first time in her career she has received this award.
In her seventh season as the head coach of the Dalhousie women’s program, Tye led her team to an 8-0-4 record, a second-place finish in conference standings and a first-round bye to Thursday’s championship semi-final round. The Tigers led the AUS in shots on goal percentage at .752 and had the most shutouts in the league, with nine. During the 2022 regular season, Dalhousie’s goalkeepers allowed just three goals.
Tye—a national B level coach with a long history on local, national and international stages—is the first Tigers coach to win this award since 2009. She now becomes the Atlantic conference nominee for the U SPORTS coach of the year award. The last AUS coach of the year winner for the Tigers was Jack Hutchinson who won it back-to-back in 2008 and 2009. The Tigers have not had a women's soccer coach win the U SPORTS coach of the year honours.
Four Tigers soccer players were named to the all-star teams.
Megan Chiasson and Hannah Firstbrook were named to the first team. Second year defender Hannah Firstbrook (Nepean, ON) started all 12 games for the Tigers this season. A member of the rock-solid defence for the Tigers, she has been named the Dalhousie Athlete of the Week once. The Tigers, with Fristbrook's strong play, only conceded 3 goals all season.
Hailing from Bedford, NS, Chiasson has been a key playmaker in the middle of the park for the Tigers this year. In her second year of eligibility, she has started all 12 games for the Tigers and found the back of the net three time this season. Named an athlete of the week in October, Chiasson was named the AUS Rookie of the Year in 2021-22. This past summer she was invited to a U20 Canadian National Team camp in Toronto.
Two Tigers were also named to the second team all-star team: Pairs Axam and Elise Evans.
Hailing from Ottawa, Ontario, Axam started all 12 games for the Tigers in her rookie season. A defender, she found the stats sheet four times with a goal and three assists. She was named an athlete of the week in September.
Joining Axam on the second team is Evans. The first-year striker also started all 12 games for the Tigers and found the back of the net three times. The Toronto, Ontario native was named an athlete of the week in September.
The full release from the AUS including all award winners can be found here.