Women's Basketball Earns Numerous Postseason Awards From The G-MAC
MIDLAND, MICH. – The Northwood University women's basketball team earned a number of honors from the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Thursday afternoon (March 6), as the league announced its annual All-Conference awards.
Autumn Haggadone earned G-MAC Coach of the Year honors, while Lea Holmes was named the league's Freshman of the Year and First Team All-Conference. Junior point guard Maeve St. John was named First Team All-Great Midwest. Senior forward Maddie Voelker earned Second Team All-Conference as well as the Elite 26 award, which is given to the student-athlete competing at the championship with the highest overall undergraduate grade point average.
Haggadone is the second women's basketball coach at Northwood to earn Coach of the Year honors from a conference, joining Jeff Curtis from the 2007-08 season. After being picked to finish seventh in the preseason poll, Haggadone led Northwood to an 18-11 record while going 15-5 in G-MAC play. That allowed the Timberwolves to tie for third in the conference. Northwood lost four starters and six key players to graduation from last year's 20-8 team.
Holmes is the second Northwood women's basketball player to earn conference Freshman of the Year honors in school history, joining Brittany Gibson from 2010-11. Holmes has put together one of the greatest individual season in Northwood history, already setting school-records for blocks (70) and field goals (190) in a season. She has 26 more blocked shots than any other player in the G-MAC this season. Holmes' 463 points are the third most on the single-season list in school history. Among freshman in all of Division II, she current ranks second in points, first in field goals, first in field goal percentage (54.1 percent) and first in blocks.
St. John posted a breakthrough junior season at Northwood. After spending the first two seasons of her career coming of the bench, she has blossomed into one of the best point guards in Division II. She ranks eighth in the G-MAC in scoring (14.1 points per game) while leading the lead in both assists (5.9 per game) and steals (2.6 per game). St. John has 58 more assists and 13 more steals than any other player in the conference. On the single season list at Northwood, St. John ranks second in steals (70) and third in assists (159).
Voelker has now turned in back-to-back All-Great Midwest seasons for the Timberwolves, as she was named to the First Team a year ago. Voelker currently ranks ninth in the G-MAC in scoring (14.0 points per game) while leading the conference in 3-point field goal percentage (36.7 percent) and standing third in free throw percentage (82.4 percent). She ranks 12th in Northwood history with 1,252 points while standing fifth in 3-point field goals made (163). Voelker also ranks eighth in program history with 299 free throws made. She earned her undergraduate degree from Northwood in Healthcare Management in three years with a perfect 4.0 GPA.
Northwood, the fourth seed in the G-MAC Tournament, will take on top-seeded Ashland in the semifinals Friday night (March 7). Game time is set for 5:30 p.m.