With regular schedules back this year it means that the Fall Sports MVPs are back as well.
We are going to be looking at women’s sports for this MVP list and only the sports that compete during the fall months.
Lila Dere – Women’s Soccer: MVP
Redshirt freshman forward Lila Dere was a major reason if not the reason for the CMU Women’s Soccer Teams’ success this year. She was the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) Freshman of the Year last year and this year, she was the RMAC Player of the Year.
She deserved the award as well as she etched her name in the CMU record books this year. She is in the top five in six of the 10 offensive categories.
She finished in third for most points (34) in a season and second in points per game (1.89). She is tied for third in most goals scored (15) in a year and is in third for goals per game (0.83). Finally, she holds the record for most shots (110) in a season and shots per game (6.11) as well.
Dere scored 15 goals this year and finished with four assists to help the Mavericks to a 14-4 record. She had five games where she scored two or more goals this year.
Every team that they played committed a lot of attention and pressure to Dere, but she always found ways to make an impact on the game. She does a terrific job at staying involved in the offense and acting as a decoy when she was the focal point of the opposing team’s game plan.
Dere had one of the best seasons for the women’s soccer team in the last decade and without her production, the season would’ve been very different for CMU Women’s Soccer.
Sydney Leffler – Volleyball: Runner-Up
Freshman outside hitter Sydney Leffler was forced to step into a bigger role with the injury to redshirt senior outside hitter Maddi Foutz and she shined in that role.
Leffler finished the year with a team-high 331 kills and she compiled 37 blocks this year. She had five games this year where registered 20 or more kills and she recorded her career-high of 22 kills twice this year.
As a freshman, Leffler came into the program and quickly became one of their top offensive options. Her ability to read the opponent’s defensive formation and place the ball in the appropriate spot separated her from a lot of RMAC outside hitters this year because she could float it over the block and hit through the block depending on what was needed.
Leffler earned recognition as well as was the RMAC Freshman of the Year as she showed off her talent to everyone. It was a career-defining year and this should set Leffler up for a lot more success in his next three years as a Maverick.
She was the first Maverick to finish the season with 300 or more kills since 2019 when Kasie Gilfert accomplished that feat. She also compiled the most kills by a freshman under Head Coach Dave Fleming as she’s the first freshman since Alisan Tompkins recorded an even 300 kills in 2006.
Lily Borgenheimer – Swim: Honorable Mention
Redshirt junior swimmer Lily Borgenheimer has continued her incredible run at CMU since transferring in 2020.
Borgenheimer has won two of the five RMAC Swimmer of the Week awards this year and she was recently named the A3 Performance Invite Swimmer of the Meet. At the A3 Performance Invite, she posted a 200-breaststroke time of 2:13.91 which was an NCAA Division II Championship automatic qualifying time and it leads the national average by more than two and half seconds.
She won three events in the A3 Performance Invite which were all meet-setting times as she consistently leads the pack in her races.
She is a special talent as a swimmer and the Mavericks team wouldn’t be the same without her.
