Quinnipiac center Ilona Maher has been named the winner of the 2016-17 MA Sorensen Award as the top women's college rugby player in the country.

Sponsored by the Washington Athletic Club in Seattle, Wash., the Sorensen Award was inaugurated last year when Penn State's Hope Rogers won the award. The Sorensen Award is named after former USA prop MA Sorensen, and Maryanne Sorensen was in fact on hand in 2016 to present Rogers with the award at a gala event in June.

Maher was one of 14 players nominated by a panel of coaches and members of the media. The college rugby populace then voted on those nominees, with the top four vote-getters then going back in front of the panel as finalists. Maher was a finalist along with Francesca Sands, Danielle Walko Siua, and Sydnee Watanabe, and it was Maher who received the most votes from the panel.

(Panelists were asked to rank the finalists 1st through 4th, with a points system applied to those rankings of 5 points for 1st, 3 for 2nd, 2 for 3rd, and 1 for 4th. Maher had the most 1st-place votes and the most overall points.)

Learn more about Ilona Maher here.

Maher will receive her Sorensen Award Trophy at the MA Sorensen & Rudy Scholz Awards at the Washington Athletic Club on June 10. 

At the Awards, former USA Women's 7s Captain Ines Rodriguez will be the keynote speaker.