Player of the Year
Carly Normandin - Massachusetts
Junior, Outfielder, Gardner, Mass./Gardner HS
Normandin enters this week's Atlantic 10 Championship (May 6-9) as the A-10's leading batter with a .439 overall average and an impressive .515 batting average in Conference play. The junior outfielder from Gardner, Mass., also leads the league in slugging percentage (.770), hits (65) and total bases (114), while ranking second in on-base percentage (.478), doubles (14), triples (four) and runs scored (46). She has ranked in the top 20 all season nationally in batting average and is in the top ten in doubles per game (0.36). A three-time A-10 Player of the Week, she is also making her second straight appearance on the All-Conference first-team.
Pitcher of the Year
Brandice Balschmiter - Massachusetts
Senior, Pitcher, Newark, N.Y./Newark HS
Balschmiter, who garners her fourth-straight A-10 Pitcher of the Year award, enters the Championship with the league's lowest ERA at 0.96 and ranks fourth nationally in shutouts with a league-leading 18 on the year. She becomes just the second student-athlete in A-10 history to garner four consecutive major awards for her sport as Karo Isajan of La Salle was named the Most Outstanding Diver of the Year in men's swimming & diving from 2004-2007. A native of Newark, N.Y., Balschmiter has held opponents to a .178 batting average and boasts a record of 28 wins and just four losses, including a perfect 12-0 mark in league play. She was named the A-10 Pitcher of the Week a league-record 28 times in her career and has posted nine career no-hitters, including two this season.
Rookie of the Year
Monica Aguilar - Saint Joseph's
Freshman, Infielder, Buena Park, Calif./John F. Kennedy HS
Aguilar has had an impressive rookie campaign for the Hawks. She ranks third overall in the A-10 in batting average (.370) and slugged an impressive .582 with a .457 on-base percentage. The third-baseman from Buena Park, Calif., has reached base safely in 30 of 41 contests and had two separate hitting streaks of eight and nine games apiece. She leads the team in batting in Conference action (.438) and her 16 extra-base hits lead the squad.
Student-Athlete of the Year
Mary Beth Puccio - Fordham
Senior, Designated Player, Brightwaters, N.Y./Bay Shore HS
Puccio earns Student-Athlete of the Year honors after posting a 3.67 grade point average as an accounting major. The designated player hailing from Brightwaters, N.Y., was a 2008 CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine First-Team Academic All-America and earned honorable mention All-Conference honors a year ago. She ranks second on the team in doubles (11) and is third in home runs (five) and RBI (35). She currently sits in sixth place on the Fordham career home run list with 14.
Coach of the Year
Elaine Sortino - Massachusetts
30th Season
Now in her 30th year at Massachusetts, Sortino has earned the A-10 Coach of the Year award an unprecedented 10 times, this time for leading the Minutewomen to their 21st A-10 regular season title and the top seed in the A-10 Championship. Last season, she became just the 11th coach in NCAA history and eighth in Division I annals to reach the 1,000- win plateau. She boasts a career record of 1,052-440-5 (.704).