Dual-Sport Star Kenzie Kent Voted ACC Female Athlete of the Year

Dual-Sport Star Kenzie Kent Voted ACC Female Athlete of the Year

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – Boston College dual-sport star Kenzie Kent has been voted the top female athlete in the Atlantic Coast Conference, winning the 27th Mary Garber Award on Friday. The Atlantic Coast Sports Media Association (ACSMA) selected Kent – a junior who stars for both the women's hockey and lacrosse teams at BC – as the conference's top female athlete for the 2016-17 season.
 
She joins Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson, who won the 64th Anthony J. McKevlin Award as the conference's top male athlete this past year.

Kent is Boston College's first winner of the Garber Award, and just the second student-athlete to be tabbed the ACC's athlete of the year. Football star Luke Kuechly won the McKevlin Award in 2012.
 
Kent emerged as most prominent and successful two-team sport athlete in the country, starting the year with the ice hockey team before joining the lacrosse team in mid-March following the conclusion of the hockey team's season.
 
A product of Norwell, Massachusetts, Kent started on left wing on the first line for the Eagles' hockey squad and was a key player on both the nation's top power play unit and the team's top-ranked penalty kill. She helped guide Boston College to its third straight Frozen Four (and seventh overall), fourth-straight Hockey East regular-season title, second straight Hockey East Tournament championship and second Beanpot (Boston) championship in a row.
 
Kent became the 15th player in women's hockey history to record 100 career points, and will enter the 2017-18 season ranked 14th in career scoring at The Heights (107 points – 31 goals, 76 assists), tied for 10th in career assists and eighth in career assists per game (0.64).
 
She continued to excel on the lacrosse field, where she posted a career-best 77 points in only 12 contests – tying for 31st nationally and fifth-most among ACC players – despite playing in only half the Eagles' games. One of four nominees for the 2017 Honda Award for lacrosse and a two-time Tewaaraton Award Watch List member, Kent became the 24th player in lacrosse program history to record 100 points, and tied the BC record for fastest to 100 career points (25 games).
 
Kent led all players in scoring in the NCAA Tournament – setting a new tournament scoring record – with 37 points in five games from 21 goals (one shy of the tournament record) and a tournament record-tying 16 assists. When she earned Most Outstanding Player honors following the Eagles' 16-13 loss to Maryland in the National Championship game, she became the first-ever student-athlete from a non-championship team to receive that honor.
 
Her prowess in the postseason led to selections to both the Hockey East All-Tournament Team, as well as the ACC Lacrosse All-Tournament Team. She has played in four NCAA Final Four events in her three seasons at Boston College (three hockey, one lacrosse).
 
Kent led the balloting for the Garber Award with 11 votes. Duke golf All-American Leona Maguire placed second with seven votes, and Florida State softball standout Jessie Warren received five.
 
The ACC athlete of the year awards are given in memory of distinguished journalists from the region. McKevlin was a sports editor in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Garber, of the Winston-Salem (North Carolina) Journal, was a pioneer as one of the first female sports journalists in the nation.
 
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