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IRVINE, Calif. — The Big West has unveiled its 2022 all-conference teams and major award winners ahead of Sunday’s start to the expanded Big West Women’s Soccer Championship.

Lena Silano, a fifth-year senior forward for Long Beach State, is The Big West Offensive Player of the Year, while rookie teammate Cherrie Cox is The Big West Freshman of the Year. Alex Crozier is again The Big West Coach of the Year after directing Cal Poly to its first outright regular-season crown since 2013. The Mustangs’ Camille Lafaix is the repeat Big West Midfielder of the Year, with teammate Mackenzie Samuel The Big West Goalkeeper of the Year. Cal State Fullerton’s Megan Day was voted The Big West Defensive Player of the Year.

A native of Agoura Hills, Silano has started all 18 contests in 2022, leading the conference in goals (14), total points (34) and shots (78-tied), while ranking second in assists (six) and shots on goal (34). All but the shots on goal are career bests. Silano is fifth nationally in goals and points.

Silano notched one of two hat tricks in The Big West this season, that coming in a 6-1 decision at UC San Diego on Oct. 13, and put together three other two-goal efforts. The forward has three game-winning scores to date to share the league high. Silano now has seven multiple-goal performances for her Beach career, totaling 60 points from 25 goals and 10 assists, and has started 37 consecutive matches dating back to 2019.

Silano gives the Beach a fifth Big West Offensive Player of the Year award, following Kim Silos in 2006, two-time recipient Nadia Link (2011-12), and Ashley Gonzales in 2016. A league-best three of Silano’s four career Big West Offensive Player of the Week honors came this fall.

Lafaix, a fourth-year senior from Los Gatos, has begun all 18 matches for the Mustangs and provided five goals and an assist for 11 total points. Lafaix tops Cal Poly team in goals, points, shots on goal (13), and game-winning scores with three. Cal Poly’s only other Big West Midfielder of the Year prior to 2021 was Cici Kobinski in 2012. Lafaix is the first repeat recipient and third two-timer since the award began in 2004.

A fourth-year junior defender out of La Mirada, Day has started all 19 contests. In addition to anchoring the Titan back line and aiding in seven shutouts, Day has contributed two goals offensively, both coming in a 3-0 home win over UC San Diego on Sept. 25, including the decisive opener. She netted the second weekly conference recognition (first offensive) of her career as a result. Day, the 2019 Big West Freshman of the Year, is Cal State Fullerton’s first Big West Defensive Player of the Year since Morgan Batcheller in 2015, and fourth overall since 2001.

Samuel paces The Big West and is tied for 14th in Division I with her nine shutouts over 16 appearances, 15 of them starts. The sophomore out of San Diego has surrendered a single goal during Cal Poly’s current seven-game unbeaten streak (5-0-2), achieving six of her nine clean sheets. Samuel gathered a season-high 13 saves at Stanford on Sept. 4 en route to 63 stops on the year. She maintains a 1.07 goals-against average with a save percentage of .788. Samuel is Cal Poly’s first Big West Goalkeeper of the Year since Coral Hoover in 2009, and third in all.

Cox, a true freshman forward out of Torrance and West High School, leads Big West rookies with five goals, five assists and 15 points. Four goals and four assists have come over the past seven games in October, including a run of four straight with a goal scored from Oct. 2-16. She has appeared in all 18 matches, starting the last 11 and 14 total. Cox gives LBSU two top freshman honorees in a row after Maddy Perez a year ago, and six of them going back to 2001. She was a two-time Big West Freshman of the Week, on Sept. 5 and Oct. 17.

Crozier is a record six-time Big West Coach of the Year for his milestone 30th season in charge at Cal Poly. He has gone back-to-back for the third time after collecting the award in its first two years of existence (1996-97), and duplicating the feat in 2002-03. Cal Poly secured The Big West regular-season trophy and first-round tourney bye by virtue of a 1-0 victory at UC San Diego on Thursday night, with Olivia Ortiz grabbing the lone winner in the 53rd minute. Crozier guided the Mustangs to a share of the crown with UC Irvine a year ago before falling to the Anteaters in The Big West Championship final. They are 9-6-3 overall (6-1-3 BW) heading into the postseason. Cal Poly is an unbeaten 5-0-2 over its last seven with one goal against.

Day, Lafaix, Samuel and Silano are joined on the 13-member All-Big West First Team by Cal Poly’s Emma Brown, Leslie Fregoso, Jayde Holley and Emma Vane of UC Davis, the Beach’s Maddy Perez, UC Santa Barbara’s Lauren Helwig, Eliza Ammendolia of Hawai’i, Cindy Arteaga of CSUN, and Alexandra Hargrave of UC Riverside.

Fregoso, Lafaix, Perez and Silano are the four holdovers from the 2021 first team. Ammendolia, Day, Holley and Samuel were second-teamers last season, while Hargrave picked up an honorable mention. Brown, Holley and Perez made the 2021 all-freshman list. Prior to the pandemic-canceled 2020 campaign, Ammendolia and Day were chosen to the 2019 first team, with Lafaix earning an honorable mention and all three taking up spots on the all-freshman squad next to Fregoso.

The Mustangs and Aggies boast the most 2022 first-teamers with three each. UC Irvine placed four and Cal State Fullerton three on the 11-player second team, while 10 more student-athletes, including Cox, garnered All-Big West honorable mentions.

Cox also leads the 11-player Big West All-Freshman Team, alongside Cal State Fullerton goalkeeper Mia Ranson, Kalea Eichenberger and Jette Zimmer of CSU Bakersfield, Emily Lieber and Camryn Penn of Cal Poly, Amber Gilbert of Hawai’i, Sarah Canavan of UC Davis, Emilie Castagna of UC Irvine, Emma Corcoran of UC Santa Barbara, and CSUN goalie Hayden Mauldin.

The now-six-team Big West Women’s Soccer Championship begins Sunday with a pair of first-round tilts at higher-seeded campus sites. Sixth-seeded UC Irvine is at No. 3 seed Cal State Fullerton at 5 p.m., and fifth-seeded UC Santa Barbara plays at No. 4 seed LBSU at 6 p.m.

Regular-season champion and top seed Cal Poly welcomes in Sunday’s two advancing sides, as well as No. 2 seed UC Davis, for the semifinals on Thursday, Nov. 3. Kickoff times at Mustang Memorial Field in San Luis Obispo are 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. The Mustangs will then also serve as hosts for the championship game on Sunday, Nov. 6, at 1 p.m., with the winner gaining The Big West’s automatic bid into the 2022 NCAA Championship. All six Big West Championship matches are scheduled to air live on ESPN+.