Nov. 2, 2010
LEXINGTON, Ky. – UK senior Laura Novikoff and freshman Caitlin Landis received All-SEC honors as announced by the league office in Birmingham on Tuesday.
Novikoff was voted by SEC coaches to the All-SEC second team, while Landis was named a member of the Freshman All-SEC squad.
Novikoff is making her first appearance on an All-SEC team. Spending her first three years at forward, she moved to the backline where she has blended in nicely. She’s helped lead the Cats to six shutouts this season, but hasn’t lost her scoring touch. She’s scored five goals this season, four of them coming in the last three matches. She has scored two game-winning goals, one of which was a majestic shot from 45 yards out against Mississippi State.
“Part of Laura’s development as a player and as a person was her buying into everything we were trying to do to get this program back into being a winning program,” UK head coach Jon Lipsitz said. “One of the decisions the coaches made was moving her to center back. There wasn’t a moment of complaint, she was excited about it; she saw it as a challenge because there was much to learn. And I think it is certainly a deserved recognition for her excellence this year that the coaches for the SEC have judged her to be an All-SEC performer.”
Landis, a two-time SEC weekly award winner this season, was selected to the Freshman All-SEC squad after finishing the regular season second on the team in goals scored (7) and third in points (15). She has attempted 58 shots, second most among freshmen in program history.
“I don’t think it’s any secret that we have to find Cat with the ball to be successful,” Lipsitz said. “What I respect about her most is she came to us a goal scorer and she’s developed very quickly into a tremendous player in combination with teammates and a tremendous defender. She has to start our defense up higher on the field and still has found the ability within all that work to score goals also.”
Novikoff and Landis are the 22nd and 23rd Wildcats in program history to earn All-SEC honors. Overall UK has garnered 37 overall All-SEC awards.
“One of the things we emphasize in this program is that it’s always about the team before individual honors,” Lipsitz said. “We’re excited to have individuals receive these honors and they’re well deserved by them. However, the most important points are that it’s recognition for our team success. Through team success more and more individuals will be honored, but it’s first because our team success that anything else happens.”
The seventh-seeded Wildcats open the 2010 SEC Tournament in Orange Beach, Ala., on Wednesday at noon CT taking on the second-seeded South Carolina Gamecocks.
