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ECAC Eastern Award Winners...
First Team All-Conference: Kim Greene, Brooke White, Brooke Whitney
Second Team All-Conference: Chanda Gunn
All-Academic Team: Pamela Pachal, Brooke Whitney
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BOSTON, MA — The 2001-02 Northeastern women’s hockey team is having an extremely successful season. That success translated into a number of individual awards when the ECAC Eastern announced its yearly award winners and All-Star teams on Thursday.
Senior co-captain Brooke Whitney (Snohomish, WA) was named conference Player of the Year. Whitney is the second NU player to ever be named Player of the Year, following Shelley Looney who was the ECAC Player of the Year in 1994. One of three finalists for the Patty Kazmaier Award, the senior led the league in points with 55 and goals 31. She ranks third in the country in both categories. A second-team All-American and first team All-Conference selection last year, Whitney earned a spot on the first team All-Conference again this season. She is the first Northeastern player to earn two first team All-Conference honors. Whitney’s 55 points this season rank sixth best all-time at NU and her 31 goals are fourth most.
Whitney was joined by some familiar faces on the All-Conference team. Juniors Brooke White (Berkeley, CA) and Kim Greene (Everett, MA) each made the first-team while sophomore Chanda Gunn (Huntington Beach, CA) was a second-team selection. White, who played for Team USA last season, returned to the Huskies this year and had put up 52 points on 18 goals and 34 assists. White is second in the conference in scoring and leads the nation in assists. Her 34 assists are the third highest single-season total in Northeastern history. White and Whitney became just the second Northeastern teammates to each reach 50 points in a season. Greene established herself as one of the top defensemen in the nation this year with 13 goals, 27 assists and 40 points. She established Northeastern records for points and assists in a season.
Gunn, who took over the reigns from graduated All-American Erika Silva in net for the Huskies, put together a tremendous season in net. The sophomore has a 22-5-1 record with a 1.43 goals against average and .947 save percentage with five shutouts. Her save percentage is on pace to set an NU record and her 22 wins tie the Northeastern mark for victories in one season. Gunn, who was one of 10 finalists for the Kazmaier Award, has allowed two goals or less in 24 of 29 starts this year.
Whitney was also joined by teammate Pamela Pachal (Saltcoats, SASK) on the ECAC Eastern All-Academic Squad. To be named to the all-academic team, student-athletes must have completed at least one academic year, have a GPA of at least 3.00 and played in at least half of the team’s games.
Northeastern has posted a 26-6-1 record on the season, 15-5-1 in the ECAC Eastern. NU was unranked to start the year and picked for fifth in the preseason poll. The Huskies finished second in the conference and are ranked fifth in the nation, fourth in the PairWise Rankings used to pick the four teams for the NCAA Championship.
The Huskies will be after the ECAC Eastern championship this weekend. NU takes on New Hampshire in the semifinals in Storrs, Conn. on Friday night. The winner will play the winner of the Niagara/Providence game on Saturday night.
