MISSION, Kan. - GNAC Player of the Year Ashley Porter (Redmond, Wash.) earned a spot on the NSCAA/adidas All-America First Team, while Ana Gutierrez (Las Cruces, N.M.) was voted Third Team All-American, announced recently by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America.
Porter becomes the first Seattle University women's soccer player to earn First Team recognition since Keely Hartsough was a two-time First Team All-American at the NAIA level in 1993 and 1994. Porter and Gutierrez are the first Redhawks to earn All-America honors from the NSCAA since Tafara Pulse was a Second Team All-American in 2001.
Porter tied her own GNAC record with 14 assists during the season, and she led the conference with 28 total points. She was a unanimous selection to the All-GNAC First Team, a CoSIDA Second Team Academic All-American, and a member of the GNAC Academic All-Conference Team for the second straight year. She will enter her senior season in fourth place on Seattle's all-time assists list with 34 career assists and seventh on the school's all-time points list with 70 career points.
Gutierrez was the anchor of the defense that allowed only ten goals in 20 matches and shut out the opposition 12 times, including five consecutive shutouts from Sept. 6 to Sept. 24. Scoring two goals during the season, Gutierrez finished her career as a three-time GNAC Academic All-Conference honoree, a 2006 member of the CoSIDA Academic All-America First Team, and the third women's soccer player to be named First Team All-GNAC four times.
Seattle University finished the 2006 season with a 15-3-2 overall record, including an 8-1-1 conference record good enough to win its first GNAC title since 2001. The team advanced to the NCAA Division II Women's Soccer Tournament for the second time in three seasons.