November 15, 2008

CEDAR RAPIDS , IOWA . . . The Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) announced today that Wartburg College senior forward Rachel Oswald (Dubuque, Iowa/Wahlert) has been named the 2008 IIAC Women’s Soccer Most Valuable Player and Wartburg head coach T.J. Buchholz has been named the 2008 IIAC Women’s Soccer Coach of the Year.

Oswald, who becomes the first player since Luther’s Katie Pettigrew (2003-04) to repeat as Women’s Soccer MVP, led Wartburg to its first Iowa Conference title in women’s soccer. In 21 games overall, Oswald scored a league-high 51 points on 20 goals and 11 assists. She led all IIAC players in goals and ranked second in assists. She was also the league’s scoring champion, tallying 24 points with a league-high nine goals in eight IIAC games.

Buchholz, in just his first season at Wartburg, reduced the number of Iowa Conference-sponsored sports in which the Waverly school has yet to win an IIAC title to one (women’s tennis; Wartburg does not sponsor swimming & diving). The Knights were 17-2-2 overall and posted a perfect 8-0-0 record in IIAC play, outscoring their league opponents by a 36-4 margin. Wartburg tied Loras 2-2 for the Iowa Conference Tournament title but were denied the league’s automatic berth into the NCAA Championships when the Duhawks captured a penalty-kick shootout by a 4-3 margin. The Knights were not selected as a Pool C (at-large) team for the 61-team 2008 NCAA Division III Women’s Soccer Championship field.

The IIAC also announced the 2008 Women’s Soccer All-Conference Team. The 26-member Team includes 12 repeat All-Conference performers including Oswald, Cornell’s Brianna Wallace, and Luther’s Emily Ironside, who raise the number of four-time All-Conference selections to 19. Wartburg, Loras, Simpson, and Luther each had five All-Conference selections, including three each on the First Team. Dubuque and Cornell each had two All-Conference selections with the Spartans picking up the remaining First Team spot.

The complete 2008 IIAC Women's Soccer All-Conference Team can be found here.

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