Bronx, N.Y. - The Fordham women's soccer team had its annual awards banquet to celebrate the 2019 season.

 
Head coach Jessica Clinton and the rest of the coaching staff handed out six awards for student-athlete performance for both on and off the pitch, as well as to the team, which was honored once against the United Soccer Coaches Team Academic Award.
 
The first award was the Most Improved Player Award, which was given to sophomore Marissa Stanco.  After seeing limited playing time in her first year, Stanco quadrupled her minutes played in year two and appeared in all 20 games in 2019.  She recorded the first point of her career with an assist in the VCU match, while recording her first career goal in overtime against Davidson, sending the Rams to the A-10 Championship.

 
Kristen Cocozza, who played in all 20 contests in her first season, received the team's Rookie of the Year Award.  She was selected to the Atlantic 10 All-Rookie Team after starting 18 contests.  She earned Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week honors once during the year and rated fourth on the team in scoring.  She recorded two goals and one assist for five points with both of her goals being game-winning markers against Manhattan and VCU.
 
The Academic Achievement Award went to senior Juliana Mascelli.  A Business Administration major, she finished with the highest GPA among the junior and senior classes.  Serving as a team co-captain this past season, Mascelli saw action in 14 games, making nine starts.  She netted one goal on the year, which came in a 3-2 win at VCU.
 
The team's Strength & Conditioning Award went to sophomore Maggie Grossman.  The award is given based on development both from an individual and team standpoint and given to a student-athlete, who comes to each training session with the attitude and effort to get 1% better every time.  Grossman showed consistency all season long in her workouts and was constantly encouraging and coaching up her teammates during training sessions.

 
Two MVP awards were also handed out for this past season's on-field performance.  Junior Crea Baker-Durante earned the Most Valuable Offensive Player Award and senior goalkeeper Kelly LaMorte was named the Most Valuable Defensive Player.  
 
After missing her sophomore season due to injury, Baker-Durante returned to the Rams' lineup, appearing in all 20 games.  She finished as the team leader in scoring with three goals and seven points, netting goals against Columbia, George Washington, and Davidson.
 
LaMorte ranked among the NCAA leaders in saves for most of the 2019 season, recording a career-high 98 stops, which was 35^th in the country.  She also set a new career-high with over 1900 minutes played (16^th in the NCAA) and recorded five shutouts.  LaMorte finished her career ranked fifth at Fordham in career saves (206), third in goals against average (1.16) and goalkeeper games played (57), and second in the minutes played (5100), shutouts (15), and games started (54).