STANDISH, ME – The Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) has released the 2013-14 women's basketball postseason awards and three individuals from the Saint Joseph's College program have been honored.
Head Coach Mike McDevitt '83 has been chosen as the GNAC Women's Basketball Coach of the Year while senior forward Abby Young (North Yarmouth, Maine) and sophomore center Morgan Cahill (Yarmouth, Maine) have earned Second Team All-GNAC accolades.
Coach McDevitt, now in his 21st season at the helm for the Monks, collects the eighth Coach of the Year honor after leading Saint Joseph's to a 23-5 overall record and a 10-1 mark in GNAC play. As the #2 seed in the GNAC Tournament, McDevitt's Monks topped #7 Lasell College and #2 Rivier University before defeating #8 Norwich University in the conference championship at the Harold Alfond Center on Saturday afternoon.
With the title game victory, Saint Joseph's earns an automatic qualifier into the NCAA DIII Tournament, which begins this Friday. The Monks' first-round opponent and location of the contest will be announced this afternoon on the NCAA DIII Women's Basketball Tournament selection show, which can be watched live online at 2:30 PM.
McDevitt, now in his second stint as the Monks' head coach, led Saint Joseph's to eight conference titles and seven NAIA National Tournament appearances over 16 seasons (1988-2003). He returned to St. Joe's in 2009, inheriting a program that went 13-13 the previous year without a conference tournament win in two years as a GNAC member.
The Monks narrowly missed the postseason in his first year back at the college, but McDevitt guided his 2010-11 team to the program's first GNAC tourney home contest - and subsequent victory - and led the Royal Blue to an appearance in the conference championship versus perennial contender Emmanuel College the following year. Saint Joseph's advanced to the GNAC semifinal round again last season and claimed the program's first conference title since 2001 with a 63-47 victory over an upstart Norwich team on Saturday.
Young claims All-Conference honors for the first time and has established career-highs across the board during her senior season. She currently leads the Monks in scoring (15.1 PPG), free throws made (84), free throw percentage (78.5%) and total points (422) and ranks second on the team in rebounding (7.7 RPG), field goals made (160) and blocked shots (21). She became the 21st member of the Monks' 1,000-Point Club with 18 points in a win over Lasell College on February 22nd.
Through 104 career games, Young has netted 1,061 points with 553 rebounds, 102 blocks, 99 assists and 70 steals. The senior post player garnered GNAC Tournament Most Valuable Player honors after averaging 20.3 points and 12.3 rebounds in the Monks' three conference tourney tilts. The senior also garnered GNAC All-Sportsmanship Team mention after being selected, by vote of her teammates, as the Monks' player who best represents the tenets of sportsmanship.
Cahill, the 2013 GNAC Rookie of the Year, earns Second Team All-GNAC accolades for the second-consecutive season. The 6'1 center leads the Monks in rebounding (8.0 RPG), blocked shots (59) and field goals made (172) and is second on the squad in scoring (15.0 PPG) and free throws made (77) over 28 starts as a sophomore. Cahill claimed a spot on the GNAC All-Tournament Team after averaging 16.3 points and 10.3 rebounds with eight rejections in the trio of postseason victories.
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Saint Joseph's College is Maine's only Catholic liberal arts college, providing a supportive, personalized and career-focused education for more than 100 years. From its 430-acre campus on the shores of Sebago Lake, the College offers more than 40 undergraduate programs to a population of approximately 1,000 students. Saint Joseph's College Online provides certificates, undergraduate and advanced degrees for working adults through an online learning program. For more, visit www.sjcme.edu.
