STATESBORO - After collecting the program's first Sun Belt Conference women's soccer title, Georgia Southern notched a pair of major awards and had three student-athletes named All-Conference with Monday's annual awards release from the league.

Junior defender Sade Heinrichs was named the Sun Belt Conference Defensive Player of the Year, while head coach Chris Adams was named the Sun Belt Conference Coach of the Year. Both awards are the first major conference awards earned by the Eagles since joining the Sun Belt Conference in 2014.

In addition, three Eagles earned spots on the Sun Belt All-Conference team for a second season in a row. Heinrichs was named to the first team as a defender, while redshirt sophomore Elis Nemtsov was named to the first team as a forward. Freshman Katie Oakley was named to the second team as a goalkeeper.

A second-team All-Conference selection a year ago, Heinrichs becomes the first Georgia Southern women's soccer student-athlete to earn a major conference regular season award since 1999, when Tara Chaisson was the SoCon Player of the Year and Amanda Bernard was the SoCon Freshman of the Year. The Monchengladbach, Germany, native has started all 16 matches for the Eagles at center back, missing just 30 minutes of action. Along with fellow center back Megan Przybysz, Heinrichs has been a big part of the Eagles giving up just seven goals in their last 15 matches and fashioning an 0.69 GAA. Georgia Southern enters the 2022 Sun Belt Conference tournament having shut out its last six opponents and will carry a 546 minute and 58 second scoreless streak into Wednesday's Sun Belt quarterfinal match.

Adams, meanwhile, becomes only the second Georgia Southern head coach to earn a league Coach of the Year award, following in the footsteps of Tom Norton, who began the women's soccer program in 1993 and was a three-time SoCon Coach of the Year honoree (1994, 1995, 1996). In his second full season at the helm of the Eagles, Adams directed Georgia Southern to the program's first regular season conference title in 2022 after the Eagles were picked to finish seventh overall and fourth in the East Division in a preseason poll of the league's coaches. Georgia Southern enters the Sun Belt tournament as the No. 1 overall seed and the current 0.69 GAA is on pace to set a new school record for defensive prowess. With an 8-3-5 overall record, the Eagles will also set a new school record this year for fewest losses in a season. The old record of five was set twice previously, in 2000 and 2002.

Heinrichs is joined on the Sun Belt All-Conference First Team by Nemtsov, who was a first-team selection a year ago. She has tallied seven goals and one assist this season, with six of her seven goals coming against Sun Belt competition. The Bradford, Ontario, native has three game-winning goals on the year, including the game-winner on Thursday night in the 86th minute to give Georgia Southern a 1-0 victory over Georgia State and earn the Eagles the Sun Belt regular season title. Nemtsov is the third Eagle to earn first-team All Sun Belt honors twice in her career, joining Marcela Montoya (2020, 2021) and Nora El-Shami (2014, 2015).

Oakley earns a spot on the second team after an outstanding debut season that saw the freshman goalkeeper allow just one goal against Sun Belt Conference competition all year long. The Covington, Ga., native is 7-2-4 this season overall with 51 saves, an 0.84 GAA and seven shutouts. In Sun Belt competition, Oakley is 6-0-1 with a minuscule 0.14 GAA and 23 saves. She joins Katie Merson (First Team, 2014) as Eagle goalkeepers to earn All-Sun Belt honors.

The full list of 2022 Sun Belt Conference Women's Soccer Awards is below.

Coach of the Year: Chris Adams, Georgia Southern
Player of the Year: Jasmine Greene, F, South Alabama
Offensive Player of the Year: Jasmine Greene, F, South Alabama
Defensive Player of the Year: Sade Heinrichs, D, Georgia Southern
Goalkeeper of the Year: Alexandra Blom, GK, James Madison
Newcomer of the Year: Jasmine Greene, F, South Alabama
Freshman of the Year: Gabriela Angulo, D, South Alabama

First-Team All-Conference
F – Elis Nemtsov, Georgia Southern
F – Morgan White, Marshall
F – Carla Morich, Old Dominion
F – Jasmine Greene, South Alabama
MF – Ece Turkoglu, Old Dominion
MF – Imane Addi, South Alabama
MF – Madi Goss, Texas State
D – Sade Heinrichs, Georgia Southern
D – Brittany Munson, James Madison
D – Abby Jacobs, South Alabama
GK – Alexandra Blom, James Madison

Second-Team All-Conference
F – Megan Brouse, Coastal Carolina
F – Ruthny Mathurin, Louisiana
F – Monique Gray, South Alabama
MF – Lexi Vanderlinden, James Madison
MF – Kat Gonzalez, Marshall
MF – Danielle Fuentes, South Alabama
MF – Ilana Izquierdo, Southern Miss
D – Eva Diez Lois, Georgia State
D – Soleil Flores, James Madison
D – Avery Thies, Texas State
GK – Katie Oakley, Georgia Southern
GK – Jaidy Campos, South Alabama