Coniff Earns Award of Distinction, Joins Holman on First Team

LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif. – On Wednesday morning the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) released their All-Conference women's soccer teams. Among the student-athletes honored were a pair of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Athenas. Jacey Coniff (HMC) and Rhiann Holman (CMC) were named First Team All-SCIAC with Coniff also being named the SCIAC Award of Distinction winner for 2017.

The First Team honor for Holman is the first All-Conference nod in her career. Throughout the season, the Athenas leaned on Holman's confidence on the ball to control play through the midfield. Holman had no problem pushing forward in attacking situations and was one of the most potent pieces of the Athenas offense right from the start of the season. The San Diego Calif. native, scored the first goal of the season en route to leading the Athenas with 13 points. She tied for the team lead with five goals and added three assists for a strong sophomore campaign.

Joining Holman on First Team was Jacey Coniff, who started all 18 games for the Athenas this season. Over her career, Coniff has been a mainstay on the backline for the Athenas. This season she led a defensive line that allowed 1.14 goals per game and collected five shutouts. In her career, Coniff appeared in 82 games (all but one) and made 62 starts, including 59 in her sophomore, junior, and senior seasons. With the First Team honor this season Coniff has made three-straight appearances on the All-SCIAC First Team ('15, '16, and '17).

In addition to her First Team accolades, Coniff was honored with the Award of Distinction in 2017 which recognizes a senior female SCIAC soccer athlete for exemplary achievements through their higher education experience. Specifically it recognizes students who, while competing on their teams, have been recognized by coaches, officials, institutional administrators or others as making significant contributions representing their school and serving their communities based on the following criteria: advancing sportsmanship, balancing sports and major personal academic achievements, demonstrating behavior that models efforts of inclusion within their teams and those of their opponents, contributes to a sense of civility in society or otherwise innovatively elevates the profile of what participation in the SCIAC conference and as a Division III student-athlete can offer to the betterment of the community.

Coniff, who hails from Thornton, Colo., maintains higher than a 3.9 grade point average (GPA), works as a tutor for both peers and local students through the Harvey Mudd hotline, and works with professors doing research. This past summer, she worked as a rocket scientist.