Notre Dame’s Anne Makinen and Duke’s Ali Curtis won the Missouri Athletic Club’s Player of the Year Awards. The awards are the official Division I Player of the Year selections by the NSCAA. Makinen, a senior midfielder who is a native of Helsinki, Finland, is the first MAC winner from a foreign country. She led the Irish to its second straight Women’s College Cup in San Jose, where they lost to eventual champion North Carolina in the semifinals, 2-1. Makinen received 183 points in balloting by NSCAA member coaches and was an overwhelming winner over runner-up Christie Welsh, the U.S. striker who plays at Penn State. Curtis, who was also a team co-captain for the Blue Devils during his senior year, received 66 points to edge Chris Gbandi of Connecticut by five points for the award. Last year, Curtis finished second to UCLA’s Sasha Victorine by one point. Three points are awarded for a first-place vote, two points for a second-place vote and one for a third-place vote. “This is a fantastic feeling,” said Curtis, a native of Milan, Michigan. “You don’t really ever expect to win awards like this. Because our season didn’t end up the way we wanted it to, this gives me a little better feeling.” “It’s a great honor because there are so many great players in the country,” Makinen said. “I’m very surprised.” Notre Dame coach Randy Waldrum wasn’t surprised. “For our team, she was the player who could produce leadership in the field and set up the game-winning goal,” he said. “She is like a pro. She is playing at a different level than anybody else.” Duke coach John Rennie said Curtis “may be the best striker and pure forward we’ve ever had at Duke. He has absolutely everything you need to have to be a truly great player.” Makinen is the second Notre Dame player to win the women’s award, following Cindy Daws in 1996. Duke has had two previous selected as the men’s player of the year, John Kerr Jr., in 1986 and Jay Heaps in 1998. Makinen led Notre Dame in scoring this year with 14 goals and 15 assists. She finished her career with 65 goals and 56 assists. She was a unanimous first-team all-Big East selection, becoming only the second player to earn first-team all-conference honors in each of her four collegiate seasons. Curtis also was an all-conference first-team selection in the ACC, the third time in his career he had earned that honor. Duke’s all-time leading scorer with 52 goals, Curtis scored 15 goals this season and added nine assists. His career total of 134 points ranks second all-time in Duke history. Makinen and Curtis will be honored Jan. 5, 2001, during a banquet at the Missouri Athletic Club in St. Louis when they will be presented with the traditional crystal ball trophies. The featured speaker at this year’s banquet will be Tony Meola, the winner of the award in 1989 and the Most Valuable Player this year in Major League Soccer for the Kansas City Wizards. Here are the final results: Women’s Player of the Year Name School Points 1. Anne Makinen Notre Dame 183 2. Christie Welsh Penn State 86 3. Mary-Frances Monroe Connecticut 29 4. Danielle Slaton Santa Clara 28 5. (tie) Danielle Borgman North Carolina 21 Aly Wagner Santa Clara 21 Men’s Player Of the Year Name School Points 1. Ali Curtis Duke 66 2. Chris Gbandi Connecticut 61 3. Lee Morrison Stanford 33 4. McKinley Tennyson, Jr. UCLA 32 5. Brent Rahim Connecticut 29