COLCHESTER, Vt. - Five Saint Michael's College women's soccer players earned Northeast 10 Conference All-Conference awards on Wednesday, as voted upon by the league's head coaches.
 
Juniors Scarlett Brookes (Rockaway, N.J./Morris Knolls), Sarah Gormley (East Moriches, N.Y./Westhampton Beach) and Julia Palmese (Berlin, Conn./Berlin) and sophomore Chloe Laizer (West Springfield, Mass./West Springfield) all claimed repeat honors, while junior Jules Peterson (Massapequa, N.Y./Massapequa) was recognized for the first time. Brookes, Palmese and Peterson were chosen for the 13-player first team, while Gormley and Laizer earned nods to the 13-player second squad.
 
Brookes and Gormley joined Rachel Hatch '93, Nicole Cremo '95, Michelle Bougor '98 and Laura Wesley '08 as the only Purple Knights to earn all-conference at least three times, with Cremo lauded each of her four years. Only she, Brookes and Gormley landed accolades during their first three seasons. Brookes and Palmese both placed on the first team for the second time in their careers, joining only Cremo, Hatch, Maureen Hanna '92 and Jen Voigt '93 in turning that feat. Laizer is the first two-time all-league goalkeeper in program history.
 
Saint Michael's had at least four honorees for the third consecutive season, after a school-record six were recognized last fall and four landed nods in 2024. A trio of Purple Knights secured positions on the NE10 All-Conference first team for the second straight season after only the 1990 team had previously drawn that distinction.
 
Brookes, a forward who became the first All-America soccer player in College history - men's or women's - last fall, was named to the NE10 All-Conference first team for the second straight year after landing on the third team as a first-year. She is third in the NE10 in goals (9) and fourth in points (22) despite missing a pair of games. Through 48 career contests, Brookes stands fifth in program history in career goals (29) and seventh in points (67), and her 10 career game-winners tie Sara Pope's '04 school mark. She scored both goals in a 2-0 win at American International College on Sept. 25, tallied at 16th-ranked Bentley University on Oct. 17, and recorded a goal and an assist in a 3-0 victory at Saint Anselm College on Oct. 28.
 
Palmese earned her second straight first team nod from her spot at center back. She anchors a defense that has thus far yielded only 11 goals in 16 games, with the Purple Knights tied for third in the NCAA Division II East Region in shutouts (9) and fifth in goals-against average (0.69). Saint Michael's blanked such teams as Franklin Pierce University, then the fifth-ranked team in the country, on Oct. 20 and the University of Bridgeport, which sits fifth in the NCAA's NPI East Region rankings, one spot behind the Purple and Gold, on Sept. 5.
 
Peterson, who joined the starting midfield as a sophomore, has added a scoring touch this fall, striking for a career-high six goals to tie for eighth in the NE10. She is also 10th in points (15), totaling eight goals and nine assists the past two seasons alone. After netting game-winning goals at Chestnut Hill College on Aug. 29 and versus Pace University on Oct. 3, Peterson buried a penalty kick in a draw with Southern Connecticut State University on Oct. 24 and lent assists on both goals of a 2-0 win over American International on Sunday in the first round of the NE10 Championship, becoming the first Purple Knight with multiple helpers in a postseason game.
 
After landing on the all-conference first team as a rookie, Laizer leads the NE10 in GAA (0.65) while tying for first in shutouts (9), tying for second in wins (9), and taking fourth in save percentage (.821). She matched her own school mark for clean sheets in a season and has already tied Trish Hannan's '90 long-standing program standard for career shutouts (18). With 25 wins, she is only two short of Jennifer Kay's '94 record (27). Laizer made four saves to author the shutout of No. 5 Franklin Pierce, four more in the blanking of Saint Anselm to clinch a home postseason game, and two on Sunday in the 2-0 win over AIC in the first round of the league tournament.
 
Gormley earned her third straight selection to the second team, as the forward owns five goals and four assists. Three of her tallies have gone as game-winners, good for a tie for fourth in the NE10. She is eighth in program history with 14 career assists while also potting 15 goals. Gormley handed off two assists in a 3-1 win against the College of Staten Island on Sept. 23, scored twice versus Assumption University on Sept. 30 - including the fastest opening goal in NE10 history (13 seconds) - and tallied the winner in the key victory at Saint Anselm.
 
Under 14th-year head coach Wendy Elles, the Purple Knights are 9-2-5 heading into Thursday's NE10 Championship semifinal contest at 16th-ranked Bentley. Saint Michael's received votes toward this week's United Soccer Coaches national poll, and it currently sits fourth in the NCAA's NPI East Region rankings, which will determine the six-team regional field in the upcoming NCAA Tournament, set for a Monday evening unveiling.