April 3, 2010 AFA hockey names annual award winners USAFA, Colo. - Senior Matt Fairchild claimed two of the seven major awards, senior Andrew Volkening was named the team's Most Valuable Player and senior Jeff Hajner earned the program's top award at the 2010 Air Force hockey banquet, presented by the Falcon Blue Line Club, Saturday, April 3, at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Colorado Springs. Senior Jeff Hajner earned the team's Vic Heyliger award, the cornerstone of Air Force hockey. The award, voted on by the team, is given to the player whose dedication, character, leadership and work ethic exemplifies Falcon hockey and is named after the Academy's first hockey coach. Hajner battled through injuries, not only this season but most of his career, and still set the school record with 150 consecutive games played. An assistant captain as a junior, he wore the "C" this season and his leadership was critical to the team's success. The center from Las Vegas finished his career in the top 35 in career scoring with 111 points in 151 games. Volkening earned the Chuck Delich Award as the team's MVP. This award, voted on by the team, is named after the Falcons' all-time leading scorer and program's third head coach. Volkening is only the second player in school history to earn the MVP award three straight years (goaltender Kim Newman in 1969, 1970 and 1971 is the other). He holds nearly every goaltending record at the Air Force Academy, including season and career wins, season and career saves percentage, season and career goals-against average and season and career shutouts. A second-team all-conference selection this season, he was among the league leaders with a 2.44 goals-against average and a .918 saves percentage. He will compete in the NCAA Frozen Four Skills Challenge on Friday, April 9, in Detroit, Mich. Fairchild earned the Jim Bowman Award as the team's top scholar athlete and the Larry Cronk Award as the team's most inspirational player. The senior from Ashburn, Va., was on dean's list every semester and the superintendent's list three times. He carries a 3.55 overall grade point average and has a 3.68 GPA in his major of systems engineering management. An assistant captain this season, he is also a finalist for the Lowe's Senior CLASS award. He also holds the school record with 155 career games played and tied the school record with seven career short-handed goals. Junior Matt Becker won the team's most improved player award as voted on by the team. A forward from Moorhead, Minn., Becker played in just 10 career games entering this season. This year, he played in 29 games and had a career best eight points with one goal and seven assists. His work ethic and determination put his name in the lineup every night in the second half of the season. Kyle De Laurell earned the John Matchefts Award, voted on by the team, as the team's freshman of the year. The winger from Colorado Springs saw action in 36 of the 37 games and was the top scoring freshman on the team with 18 points on six goals and 12 assists. He ranked fifth on the team in scoring by all players and was the 10th in Atlantic Hockey in points by a freshman. Sophomore Tim Kirby was named the team's defensive player of the year. Kirby was a first-team all-conference selection as he was one of the top scoring defensemen in the league. He led the team with a +6 and had 24 points on five goals and 19 assists. He scored three game-winning goals this season, all coming in the final three minutes of a game or in overtime. Dave Toller Assistant Athletic Director-Media Relations U.S. Air Force Academy Office: 719-333-3478 Cell: 719-200-2802 /"\ ASCII Ribbon | charlie shub (719) 255-3492 \ / Campaign Against | [log in to unmask] (mobile) 761-8778 X HTML in e-mail | http://cs.uccs.edu/~cdash (fax) 255-3369 / \ and news | University of Colorado at Colorado Springs