SCIAC names Yamada first-team, Martinez second

Photo by: Tony Leon/Action West Photography

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - The Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference announced its 2009 all-conference team today and the Whittier College women's soccer team landed Breeann Yamada and Amanda Martinez on the first-team and second-team, each, respectively to cap the 2009 year.

Yamada played in and started 18 games for Whittier and scored goals against MacMurray on September 3 and La Sierra on September 10. Her goal against LSU came on a penalty kick which was the lone attempt for WC on the year.

The freshman out of Waipahu, Hawaii, is only the second freshman to earn all-conference honors under head coach Nicole Gervais and first since Ameshia Hamlet accomplished the feat in 2007.

Like Yamada, Martinez played in and started 18 games and scored one goal with a team-high three assists.  She scored her only goal of the year in a 2-1 loss to La Verne on September 23 and recorded at least one assist in each game played during Whittier's trip to the Midwest.

In WC's first game of the season she had one assist and added two more in a 5-0 win over Blackburn on September 5.

Yamada and Martinez become the first one-two combination to earn a spot on the all-conference team under Gervais. Hamlet was the only Whittier representative in 2007 and Anna Plascencia was named to the second-team last year.

This year the Poets snapped a 52-game losing skid and a 36-game conference skid. Whittier finished the year 2-14-2, 0-11-1 in the SCIAC.