As the St. Kate's hockey team continues through their most successful season on record, the Wildcats received word from the MIAC that they took home some of the top honors for the season.
Junior
Michaela Michaelson has been named MIAC Player of the Year. The two-time all-conference award winner has racked up 35 points (19 goals, 16 assists) in 24 games for the entire season including 24 points (12 goals, 12 assists) in 18 conference games. Her goal total tied for best in the MIAC and her 24 points were second in the conference. In 73 career games, Michaelson now has 85 points on 47 goals and 38 assists.
Coach Brad Marshall was also honored by the conference office and his peers, as he was named MIAC Coach of the Year. Now in his fifth season at St. Kate's, Marshall has rebuilt a program that won only one game over the course of two seasons (2005-06 to 2006-07) to within one win of automatically qualifying for the NCAA National Tournament (the winner of Saturday's MIAC Championship game automatically qualifies for the NCAA tournament).
Along with player of the year and coach of the year honors, the Wildcats had six team members earn conference honors.
Michaelson was named to the MIAC All-Conference squad for the third consecutive season. Joining Michaelson on the All-MIAC team were Defensemen
Meghan Lange,
Katie Lawler and Forward
Kelsey Abrahamson. Goalkeeper
Mel Gerten and forward
Cassie Rooney earned MIAC Honorable Mention Honors.
Lange and Lawler anchored the Wildcats defense that tied for second in the conference after giving up only 45 goals all season. Lawler, who tied for fifth in Defensemen scoring in MIAC play, was named to her first MIAC All-Conference team. For Lange, it was her second time winning the award.
Abrahamson, who finished the season with 20 points (10 goals and 10 assists) in 21 games, earned all-conference honors for the first time, after being named to the honorable mention squad as a freshman.
Gerten played nearly 1200 minutes between the pipes for the Wildcats, had a 1.91 goals against average and .935 save percentage on the season. Gerten also had the second highest winning percentage in the MIAC going 15-4-2 on the season.
Sophomore Cassie Rooney earned her second consecutive honorable mention award. She finished the season tied for tenth in the conference with 21 points (9 goals and 12 assists) in 23 games played.
Senior team captain
Aryn Ball was named to the MIAC All-Sportsmanship team. Ball has been with the team after going 0-22-2 her first year to this season's 18-4-2 record.
A complete copy of the MIAC Release is
available here