W-League News Release
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
TAMPA, Fla. – The W-League today announced its 2012 All-League Team, featuring five players headed to this weekend’s W-League Championship Presented by Umbro in Ottawa, Ontario. The 2012 W-League All-League Team was selected through a vote of team management.
The undefeated Pali Blues, who claimed the Western Conference Championship on Sunday, lead all teams with four players chosen to the team. Blues goalkeeper Anna Maria Picarelli, who last week was honored as the league’s Goals-Against Average Champion, leads the selections, and she is joined by defender Sasha Andrews, midfielder Sarah Huffman and forward Lynn Williams, who led the team and finished third in the league with 10 goals.
The Seattle Sounders Women, who fell to the Blues in the playoffs, are represented by a pair of standouts as Veronica Perez and Stephanie Cox were both named to the team. Perez finished second in the W-League with 26 points and 12 goals, while Cox was a model of consistency in defense as the Sounders conceded just eight goals in 14 regular season games.
The league’s leading scorer, Grace Hawkins of the Long Island Rough Riders, joins Williams and the Quebec City Amiral’s Imen Trodi in the team’s forward line after she finished the season with 17 goals in 12 games, running away with the league’s goal scoring award. She is joined by Rough Riders defender Vaila Barsley, who appeared in all 12 games for the side as it conceded just eight goals on the way to a division title.
The New Jersey Wildcats’ Yael Averbuch joins Huffman and Perez in midfield, with the former U.S. International recording eight goals and six assists in nine games. Rounding out the team is defender Cindy Walsh of the Laval Comets, who impressed while playing every minute of every game for the Central Conference finalists.
2012 W-League All-League Team
GK – Anna Maria Picarelli, Pali Blues
D – Sasha Andrews, Pali Blues
D – Vaila Barsley, Long Island Rough Riders
D – Stephanie Cox, Seattle Sounders Women
D – Cindy Walsh, Laval Comets
MF – Yael Averbuch, New Jersey Wildcats
MF – Sarah Huffman, Pali Blues
MF – Veronica Perez, Seattle Sounders Women
F – Grace Hawkins, Long Island Rough Riders
F – Imen Trodi, Quebec City Amiral
F – Lynn Williams, Pali Blues