Yarmouth/Freeport senior Sadie Carnes, who led her squad to its first-ever state championship game last month, was named the winner last week of the Becky Schaffer Award, given by the Maine High School Girls’ Hockey Association to the state’s best senior player.

Carnes, a forward, who finished with 15 goals and 22 assists, was chosen over Kathryn Brower, a goalie for York/Traip/Marshwood/Noble; Delaney Whitten, a defenseman for Cape Elizabeth/Waynflete/South Portland; Emma Michaud, a goalie for the Winslow/Gardiner co-op team; and Emma McNeil, a forward for the Penobscot Pioneers co-op team.

Carnes is the first winner from Yarmouth/Freeport in the award’s six-year history.

Becky Schaffer was a 2006 graduate of Yarmouth High School. She was the leading scorer for the school’s girls’ club team and also played for the Clippers varsity and junior varsity boys’ teams as a junior and senior. Schaffer was one of many trailblazing girls that paved the way for the establishment and sanctioning of girls’ ice hockey by the Maine Principals Association in 2008. Schaffer attended McGill University in Montreal and intended on earning a Graduate degree in African Studies and joining the Peace Corps. Scaffer traveled to Micronesia to teach English and lost her life at the far-too-young age of 23 in a tragic accident while hiking there with fellow teachers. The Becky Schaffer Award was created in her honor.