The National Soccer Coaches Association of America has awarded the Silver Award for Team Ethics to the Rams women's soccer team.

The 2011 Rams squad was one of 43 teams nationally to earn the silver recognition for clean play throughout the year. The silver award is given to teams that were not issued any red cards during the season and had less than five yellow caution cards.

The Rams finished the season with an 11-8-1 overall record, reaching the Great Northeast Athletic Conference, or GNAC, tournament finals before falling to Lasell College, 2-1 in the championship game.

Record season for Hayden

Meanwhile, senior Leslie Hayden, who was recognized as the GNAC Offensive Player of the Year and named a first-team All-Conference selection earlier this year, was named to the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) second team All-Region team and was also named a fourth team All-Star in the region by the NSCAA after setting the all-time GNAC record in career points with 175.

Sophomores Gabrielle Balestrier and Monica Wolf earned second team All-Conference honors by the GNAC.

Kristina Michael was named to the All-Sportsmanship team and to the University's Who's Who list.

This was the fourth straight season that the women's soccer team was recognized by the NSCAA for fair play under Head Coach Ernst Cleophat.