San Francisco, CA - June 5 - The 23rd Annual Peter J. Cutino Awards were awarded last night at The Olympic Club in San Francisco with Makenzie Fischer and Nikolaos Papanikolaou taking home the women's and men's honors for the 2021-22 season.
Fischer caps off an incredible collegiate career at Stanford with her second Cutino Award, also winning in 2019. She joins Annika Dries (2011, 2014) and Kiley Neushul (2012, 2015) as the only two-time honorees in school history.
Fischer was named the NCAA Most Valuable Player after guiding Stanford to its eighth national title in school history and first since 2019 with a 10-7 win over USC on May 8. An All-MPSF first-team selection for the third straight season and fourth overall, she led the Cardinal in goals (83), assists (47), points (130) and shots (167) while producing 23 multi-goal games.
A two-time Olympic gold medalist and three-time NCAA champion, Fischer became Stanford's all-time leading scorer in a win over USC on Feb. 26, surpassing the 239 mark achieved by Melissa Seidemann and Lauren Silver. Fischer closed out her career on The Farm with 288 career goals, which ranks third all-time in MPSF history.
Papanikolaou put the finishing touches on an amazing junior season at UC Berkeley. After being named the ACWPC National Player of the Year and leading Cal to the 2021 NCAA championship, he becomes just the fourth Bear to ever win the Cutino Award, joining John Mann (2006), Ivan Rackov (2010), and Luca Cupido (2017).
Papanikolaou led the MPSF with 68 goals and 35 steals while registering 112 earned exclusions. He was a finalist for the Cutino Award last season and has been named the MPSF Player of the Year in each of the past two seasons.
The award holds extra significance for UC Berkeley because it is named after legendary Bears head coach Peter Cutino, who led Cal to eight national titles during a 26-year career. Cutino is the program's all-time winningest coach with 519 victories.
