Kylie Cabana, Chase Sumner named Polar Bear of the Month winners for November

By Wes Mayberry

ADA — Junior women's soccer player Kylie Cabana (Dexter, Mich.) and senior wrestler Chase Sumner (Ada) have been selected as the Ohio Northern athletic department's Polar Bear of the Month award winners for November.

Cabana, a defender, adds this recognition to a long list of other accolades she has earned this season.

She was one of 45 student-athletes from across the country to be named a 2022 Division III Women's Soccer All-American by United Soccer Coaches, as she was selected to the All-America Third Team. That was after United Soccer Coaches had named her to its All-Region VII First Team.

A pre-dentistry major with a 4.0 GPA, Cabana was selected to the All-Ohio Athletic Conference First Team as the conference's Co-Defender of the Year and earned Academic All-OAC and College Sports Communicators Academic All-District Team honors.

Cabana was a key member of the ONU defense that limited opponents to 5.6 shots, including just 2.6 on goal, per game in 2022. Opponents combined to score just nine goals against ONU all season, and the Polar Bears posted 15 shutouts, including a stretch of nine straight from Oct. 12 to Nov. 12.

The nine goals allowed marked a new program record for a non-shortened season, and the 15 total shutouts and nine consecutive shutouts are both just one shy of all-time records.

The Polar Bear women's soccer team finished the 2022 season 14-2-5 overall and was the OAC regular season co-champion with Capital, posting a 7-0-2 mark in conference play. Northern won its second straight OAC Tournament championship to clinch an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament and advanced to the second round for the second consecutive year.

Sumner is ranked No. 10 nationally in the 149-pound weight class and has gotten off to an impressive start in the 2022-23 season.

After qualifying for the NCAA Championships a season ago, Sumner currently boasts a 17-1 record with eight pins, five technical falls and one major decision. He placed sixth at the season-opening Mount Union Invitational on Nov. 5 and proceeded to go a perfect 14-0 to close out the month. That stretch included 4-0 marks in both the Adrian (Mich.) Duals and Olivet (Mich.) Duals on Nov. 12 and 19, respectively. He was named OAC Wrestler of the Week on Nov. 14.

Most recently, Sumner posted a 5-0 record in Saturday's ONU Invitational as he has helped guide the 20th-ranked Polar Bear wrestling team to a 10-0 start to the season.