2009-10 AUS all-stars and all-rookies announced

HALIFAX, NS - Atlantic University Sport is pleased to announce the 2009-10 women's hockey all-star teams and all-rookie team as selected by the conference's seven head coaches following the regular season.

The first place Moncton Aigles Bleues and second place StFX X-Women each picked up two first team all-stars, with Kori Cheverie of the Saint Mary's Huskies and Jocelyn LeBlanc of the Dalhousie Tigers also being honoured as first team selections.

Leading the way for the defending AUS champions and CIS No. 4-ranked Moncton Aigles Bleues are former AUS MVP's Kathy Desjardins and Mariève Provost. Provost, now a three-time Atlantic conference scoring champion and currently the conference's active career scoring leader with 175 points in four seasons, had her best season to date, scoring 29 goals and adding 22 assists for 51 points in 24 regular season games. Provost, the 2006-07 AUS Rookie of the Year, scored seven power-play goals, three game-winning goals and registered two hat-tricks. Her 29 goals and 51 points were the most by any CIS player this season.

Joining Provost on the first team is teammate and 2008-09 AUS MVP Kathy Desjardins, who finished the season with a goals against average of 1.61 and an 18-3 record, including one loss in overtime. Desjardins, who has racked up 36 career wins and four shutouts in just three seasons with the Aigles Bleues, also led the conference with a 0.943 save percentage.

Defensemen Suzanne Fenerty and Marilyn Hay of the CIS No. 5 ranked StFX X-Women took home both spots reserved for blue-liners. Fenerty finished second in scoring among AUS defensemen with a career-high 16 points in 24 games, while Hay, a first team selection for the fourth consecutive season, scored 5 goals and added 9 assists for 14 points.

Saint Mary's forward Kori Cheverie, a two-time Atlantic conference nominee for the CIS Marion Hilliard Award (outstanding achievement in hockey, academics and community involvement), wraps up her five-year career as a Huskie with 78 goals, 59 assists and 137 points in 105 career regular season games. This season, she led the league in power-play goals (10), short-handed goals (3) and finished tied for third in overall scoring with 30 points in 24 games. Her 137 career points rank her third all-time in school history behind former league MVP's Lindsay Taylor (184 points) and Courtney Schriver (146 points).

Dalhousie forward Jocelyn LeBlanc rounds out the 2009-10 first team selections. LeBlanc, the 2007-08 AUS Rookie of the Year and a second team all-star each of the past two seasons, finished second in league scoring this year with 16 goals and 18 assists for 34 points. Her season saw her establish new Dalhousie single-game records for goals (5) and points (7), which also rank second and third all-time respectively in AUS women's hockey history. In just three seasons, Jocelyn has already accumulated 100 career points and her 58 career goals are the second highest total in school history. She trails only former Tigers player Leah Merkley, who netted 62 goals in her five-year career from 2003-04 to 2007-08.

Moncton's Provost and SMU's Cheverie were also members of Team Canada that won gold at the 2009 Winter Universiade in Harbin, China.

First team all-stars:
Forward - Mariève Provost, Moncton (4th year - Laval, PQ)
Forward - Jocelyn LeBlanc, Dalhousie (3rd year - Moncton, NB)
Forward - Kori Cheverie, Saint Mary's (5th year - New Glasgow, NS)
Defence - Marilynn Hay, StFX (4th year - Sombra, ON)
Defence - Suzanne Fenerty, StFX (3rd year - Cole Harbour, NS)
Goalie - Kathy Desjardins, Moncton (3rd year - Loretteville, PQ)

Among the players named to the second team are StFX forwards Jessica Shanahan and Carolyn Campbell, along with Moncton's Valérie Boisclair. Boisclair, who led the league with six game-winning goals, finished in a tie for third in overall AUS scoring with 30 points in 19 games. Shanahan, who has accumulated 101 points in four seasons with the X-Women, tied for sixth in conference scoring with 28 points in 24 games, while Campbell netted 13 goals and 9 assists for 22 points this year.

Also selected to the second team were defensemen Laura Shearer of Dalhousie and Lucrese Nussbaum of St. Thomas, along with goalie Meghan Corley-Byrne of Mount Allison.

Shearer led all defensemen in scoring this season with 17 points in 22 games, while Nussbaum, who is currently playing for Team Switzerland at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, registered 10 points in 17 games played. Corley-Byrne, a second year goalie from Ottawa, played in 20 games and posted a 3.77 goals against record for the Mounties.

Boisclair, Shanahan, Shearer and Nussbaum have all been named AUS all-stars in previous seasons, while Campbell and Corley-Byrne are both first time all-stars.

Second team all-stars:
Forward - Valérie Boisclair, Moncton (4th year - St. Léonard d'Aston, PQ)
Forward - Jessica Shanahan, StFX (4th year - Calgary, AB)
Forward - Carolyn Campbell, StFX (3rd year - Ottawa, ON)
Defence - Laura Shearer, Dalhousie (4th year - Falmouth, NS)
Defence - Lucrese Nussbaum, St. Thomas (4th year - Weinfelden, Switzerland)
Goalie - Meghan Corley-Byrne, Mount Allison (2nd year - Ottawa, ON)

This year marks the fourth year an all-rookie team has been selected in AUS women's hockey.
Among the first year players named to the team are StFX's Jenna Downey and Abygail Laking, Dalhousie's Fielding Montgomery and Rebecca Mosher of the Saint Mary's Huskies. Forward Amy Kelbaugh and goaltender Kristin Wolfe, both of the St. Thomas Tommies were also selected to the all-rookie squad.

All-rookie team:
Forward - Fielding Montgomery, Dalhousie (Toronto, ON)
Forward - Abygail Laking, StFX (Cambridge, ON)
Forward - Amy Kelbaugh, St. Thomas (Springside, SK)
Defence - Rebecca Mosher, Saint Mary's (Poplar Grove, NS)
Defence - Jenna Downey, StFX (Stratford, ON)
Goalie - Kristin Wolfe, St. Thomas (Chignecto, NS)

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The 2010 Subway Atlantic University Sport Women's Hockey Championship will be hosted by the Université de Moncton, February 25-28, 2010 at the J.-Louis-Lévesque Arena in Moncton, NB. The six-team championship gets under way Thursday at 3:00pm Atlantic Time with the first of six round-robin duels and concludes Sunday at 2:00pm Atlantic with the championship final.

The six participating teams have been separated into two pools based on the final regular season standings.

Pool “A”
1. Moncton
4. St. Thomas
6. UPEI

Pool “B”
2. StFX
3. Saint Mary’s
5. Dalhousie

The tournament schedule is as follows:

Thursday, February 25th
Game #1: StFX (2nd) vs. Dalhousie (5th), 3:00pm
Game #2: Moncton (1st) vs. UPEI (6th), 7:00pm

Friday, February 26th
Game #3: Saint Mary’s (3rd) vs. Loser Game #1, 3:00pm
Game #4: St. Thomas (4th) vs. Loser Game #2, 7:00pm

Saturday, February 27th
Game #5: Saint Mary’s (3rd) vs. Winner Game #1, 3:00pm
Game #6: St. Thomas (4th) vs. Winner Game #2, 7:00pm

Sunday, February 28th
Championship Game: Pool “A” winner vs. Pool “B” winner, 2:00pm

The 2010 CIS Women's Hockey Championship is scheduled for March 11-14, 2010, hosted by StFX University. In addition to StFX, a second Atlantic University Sport team will advance to the 2010 CIS Championship. If StFX wins the AUS Championship, the runner-up will also qualify for the CIS Championship.

*Note: Head shots of all the above all-stars are available by contacting me directly. The women's hockey major award winners will be announced Wednesday, February 24th.

- AUS -