Recent William & Mary graduate Cassidy Goodwin '19 was named as the university's CAA Institutional Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year Presented by Sonabank for 2019-20, as announced by the Colonial Athletic Association on Wednesday.  The Institutional Scholar-Athletes of the Year, one for men's teams and one for women's teams at each of the CAA's 10 full-member institutions, are evaluated each year by the conference's academic affairs committee and one overall Male and Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year are chosen by the committee on the basis of both athletic and academic achievement.
 
Goodwin wrapped up her stellar four-year career for W&M field hockey last November, and then graduated a semester early with her career in kinesiology in order to begin preparing for nursing school.  In her final season, Goodwin led the Tribe back into the nation's top-25 and to a 12-7 mark overall, 5-1 in the CAA.  W&M had an eight-match winning streak in the midst of that season, a stretch that included a thrilling 2-1 double-overtime upset of No. 5 Louisville.  Goodwin started every game of the season in the defense, helping lead the W&M backfield to hold opposing offenses to a paltry 5.84 shots on-goal per game, one of just four seasons in program history under 6.0.  As part of that effort, she had a pair of defensive saves, coming against No. 3 Duke in the season-opener and also in the win over Monmouth.  That raised her career total to eight defensive saves, 13th-most ever at W&M.
 
Goodwin also had a career-best season as part of W&M's free-wheeling attack.  She scored a career-high seven goals on the year, ranking third on the team with 14 total points.  That nearly doubled her total of eight goals scored over her first three years.  Goodwin scored goals against James Madison, Hofstra, and Davidson, and then over the weekend of Oct. 18-20, exploded with four goals in two games.  She scored two of W&M's three goals in the win over Drexel on the road on Friday night, and then on Sunday, added two more including the overtime game-winner in the rain at Lafayette.  That performance earned her CAA Player of the Week honors.  Overall, Goodwin finished her four years with 15 goals, eight assists, and eight defensive saves.  She ranks 14th in school history with 67 career starts, out of 76 games played.
 
Goodwin also joined elite company in W&M program history after the season was over.  She was named first-team All-CAA for the first time, and also earned a spot on the CAA All-Tournament team for the third year in a row.  She tied the W&M all-time record with six post-season conference honors first achieved by Anna Davis '05, and also matched Davis with a program-record three appearances on the all-tournament team.  Goodwin was just the second athlete in program history and 17th in league history to earn a spot on all four all-conference teams in her career (first, second, tournament, and rookie), joining former teammate Erin Menges '18.  Goodwin went on to also be named second-team All-Region by the NFHCA, her first all-region award, and was named to the VaSID All-State second-team for second time.  In the classroom, Goodwin was a W&M Provost Award winner all four years, for having a GPA over 3.5, and also earned four nods on the NFHCA All-Academic team including a pair of "Scholar of Distinction" awards for having a GPA over 3.9.
 
This is the third year that the CAA Scholar-Athlete of the Year program has taken this form, with W&M earning a pair of overall winners so far.  In 2017-18, basketball's Paul Rowley '17 JD '20 was the Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year, while in 2018-19, swimmer Claire Williams '19 was the Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year.  Institutional nominees must be in either their final undergraduate academic year or already in a graduate program, and intend to start/continue graduate study.
 
2019-20 CAA Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year Awards Presented by Sonabank
CAA Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year - Laura Masciullo, Hofstra, Volleyball
 
CAA Institutional Female Scholar-Athletes
Charleston - Rachel Kim, Soccer
Delaware - Andie Hanus, Volleyball
Drexel - Alexa Kutch, Swimming
Elon - Skylar Barthelmes, Track & Field
Hofstra - Laura Masciullo, Volleyball
James Madison - Bonnie Zhang, Swimming
UNCW - Kendall Bender, Volleyball
Northeastern - Patrice Williams, Track & Field
Towson - Camryn Allen, Volleyball
William & Mary - Cassidy Goodwin, Field Hockey
 
W&M Institutional Scholar-Athletes of the Year
2019-20 - Cassidy Goodwin, Field Hockey; Brandon Raquet, Baseball
2018-19 - Claire Williams, Swimming *; Julian Ngoh, Soccer
2017-18 - Erin Menges, Field Hockey; Paul Rowley, Basketball **; Bodie Sheehan, Baseball
 
* Overall Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year
** Overall Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year and also CAA Men's Basketball Scholar-Athlete of the Year