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Somerset, NJ — The conclusion of the regular season marks the start of the NEC Women's Basketball Tournament, which  means that awards season has arrived. In what proved to be an historic year for FDU, two of the NEC's five major awards landed in the hands of the Knights, while Saint Francis U also hauled in a pair of individual postseason awards.

Graduate forward Madison Stanley's (Woodbridge, NJ/Rutgers Prep) across-the-board contributions to the Knights' first, first-place regular season finish since 1992-93 resulted in the guard becoming the program's first-ever NEC Player of the Year honoree.

The woman who fostered the Knights' inaugural Player of the Year joined her star player as a major award winner. After piloting FDU to its first NEC regular season title in nearly three decades, Angelika Szumilo was voted by her peers as the Coach of the Year.

Saint Francis U's Jada Dapaa (North Bethesda, MD/Holy Child) also headlined the list of 2021-22 NEC women's basketball major award winners. The senior forward captured dual honors for the Red Flash and made conference history after becoming the first player to be voted both the NEC Defensive Player of the Year and the Most Improved Player of the Year.

Head coaches tabbed LIU freshman guard Emaia O'Brien (Detroit, MI/Chandler Park Academy) as the NEC Rookie of the Year to round out this year's impressive list of award winners.

The honorees were announced this morning on what will be an action-packed Monday featuring the quarterfinal round of the 2022 NEC Women's Basketball Tournament, which began with opening round play on Saturday. All tournament games will be held at campus sites.

When it comes to the NEC's individual statistical leader board, the name Stanley appears everywhere. The Garden State product is second in the circuit in scoring, averaging 14.6 points in conference games on 52.0 percent shooting from the field, a league-best mark. The four-time NEC Player of the Week honoree scored her 1,000th career point last month during a stretch that saw the Knights rip off eight straight wins, a league-best rally, en route to leading the program to 18 victories, the most since 1991-92. Stanley got things done on both ends of the court, as she was also at the center of the conference's stingiest defense. NEC teams had trouble scoring with the 6-foot-1 forward patrolling the paint, as the Knights boasted the top-ranked scoring defense (53.2 ppg) along with the No. 1 field goal percentage defense (.348) and three-point field goal percentage defense (.272). She wreaked havoc on NEC opponents, rejecting a league-high 1.5 shots over 16 games while finishing fifth in rebounding with 6.9 boards per contest. Overall, Stanley led FDU in minutes per game (32.3), points per game (12.8), rebounds per game (7.0), blocks (40), free-throw percentage (.787), field goals made (130) and field goal percentage (.480).

Stanley is the seventh player in program history to garner a major award from the conference.

Year three of the Szumilo Era proved to be one for the books, and it isn't over yet. Inherting a program that won eight games and posted a .278 winning percentage against NEC opponents, she doubled that win total by the end of her second season before guiding FDU back to the top of the league standings for the first time in nearly 30 years. Szumilo and her Knights won 18 games in 2021-22 — the most since a 1991-92 campaign that saw FDU win its first-ever NEC Tournament title — and earned the NEC regular season crown for the first time since 1992-93. In addition, this season's 15 league victories are the most in program history. Since Szumilo took the helm in 2019-20, FDU has posted top four finishes each season, a complete one-eighty from a squad that finished in the bottom half of the NEC standings in 11 straight years before her arrival. With home court advantage throughout the playoffs, the top-seeded Knights have an opportunity to end its 30-year NEC Championship drought in their own house. FDU, which has not been to the title game since capturing the tournament title 29 years ago, has been dominant inside the Rothman Center this season, going 8-0 and winning each of its last 12 games against NEC opponents, dating back to 2020-21. Szumilo is just the second coach in FDU history to win Coach of the Year accolades. She joins Sharon Beverly, who took home the award after leading the Knights to their first-ever NEC regular season title in 1992-93.

Dapaa, who is SFU's first major award winner since Ace Harrison was tabbed Player of the Year in 2016-17 and 2017-18, becomes the Red Flash's first-ever recipient of the NEC Most Improved Player award, which was instituted in 2015. She is the sixth player in program history to earn Defensive Player of the Year laurels as the Red Flash have now landed three honorees in the past six years.

To say that Dapaa has been dominant on the boards in 2021-22 is an understatement. Standing at 5-11, the junior led the circuit in every single rebounding category and is ranked among the nation's elite rebounders. She enters the postseason as the second-leading rebounder in NCAA Division I with 364 total caroms, while her 12.6 boards per game are good for third in the nation. In addition, Dapaa is ranked fourth in defensive rebounds per game (8.7) and 20th in offensive rebounds per contest (3.8). Needing just two boards to break SFU's single-season record in the category, she has accounted for 34.3 percent of the Red Flash's rebounds this season and nearly one-third of her team's boards off the offensive glass (32.5%). No other player in the league has come close to touching Dapaa's numbers on the boards, as the NEC's second leading rebounder is averaging 7.7 rebounds per game. She has registered double figures in rebounding a conference-best 22 times — including a 23-rebound effort against Sacred Heart — while her 11 double-doubles are also the most in the NEC. With 741 rebounds, Dapaa is ranked ninth all-time in program history.

After earning just three starts for SFU as a junior in 2020-21, Dapaa was a mainstay in the Red Flash's front court this season. The forward started in all 29 games and averaged a team-high 33.3 minutes per game in 2021-22, nearly a 10-minute per game increase from a year ago. It is obvious that her aforementioned dominant rebounding numbersare an improvement from last season. But Dapaa also developed into one of the top scoring post players in the league. Raising her scoring average from 7.5 ppg a year ago to 9.3 ppg in 2021-22, the Bethesda, MD native continues to show steady improvement throughout the course of her senior season. Dapaa increased her scoring mark to 10.8 ppg during conference play and over the final seven games, a stretch that saw her post seven double-doubles, she averaged 15.9 ppg.

A unanimous selection for NEC Rookie of the Year after claiming a league-best eight Rookie of the Week honors, O'Brien becomes the second Shark to bring the award to Brooklyn in the past four years, joining current teammate Brandy Thomas, who was tabbed the league's top freshman in 2018-19. She came on strong during league play, netting double figures in 10 contests to rank second on the team with 10.3 points per game. O'Brien was a key contributor to LIU's regular-season ending run that featured wins in five of the final six games. During that stretch, she produced five double-digit scoring games and averaged 11.8 points over five starts. On the year, O'Brien, who made each of her 10 starts in NEC play, bolstered LIU's offense with 9.6 points per game on 38.7 percent shooting in 24.8 minutes per game. 

AWARD WINNER HIGHLIGHTS

This year's All-NEC list features a whopping nine repeat honorees, including a trio of back-to-back first teamers in Stanley and Mount St. Mary graduate guard/forward Kendall Bresee (Frederick, MD/Urbana), and a three-peat recipient in Wagner senior forward Emilija Krista Grava (Ligatne, Latvia/Liepajas Papirisk SSS).

LIU senior guard Brandy Thomas (Baldwin, NY/Christ the King), who was named to the first team for the second time in her career after receiving the honor in 2019-20, becomes just the seventh four-time All-NEC honoree in league history. She joins Jessica Kovatch (Saint Francis U, 2015-19), Ashley Palmer (LIU Brooklyn, 2008-12), Artemis Spanou (Roger Morris, 2011-14), Kia Williams (Mount St. Mary's, 2011-14), Erin Kerner (Quinnipiac, 2005-09), and Amanda Pape (Sacred Heart, 2003-07). A product of Baldwin, NY, Thomas averaged 11.9 ppg and shot 43.4 percent from three on the season. During NEC play, she led the circuit in three-point field goal percentage (.421) and was the league's third-leading scorer, netting 13.9 ppg. She was a threat defensively as well, recording the third-most steals in the conference (2.0 per game).

Krista Grava pulled off the rare, and impressive feat of earning three straight first team honors after finishing the regular seson ranked fifth on the scoring circuit with 12.8 ppg and 10th in rebounding with 5.9 rpg. The forward's 2.8 offensive boards per game placed her second among NEC leaders.

Garnering her third career All-NEC award, Bresee is the lone NEC competitor to rank in the top-five in scoring (first), rebounding (second), assists (fifth) and blocks (t-fourth). Registering 20+ points in a conference-best six contests, the league's leading scorer put up double figures in all 16 NEC games and pushed her scoring average to 15.9 points per contest during that stretch. In addition, Bresee's 1.3 assist-to-turnover ratio is third in the NEC, while her 6.7 defensive boards rank third. Bresee's 15.2 points, 7.7 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 1.0 blocks per appearance are all team-high averages. The senior netted her 1,000th career point this season.

With Dapaa's first-ever All-NEC nod, SFU has placed at least one player on the first team in six of the past seven seasons. The Red Flash have combined for six honorees during that stretch.

Mount St. Mary's senior guard Michaela Harrison (Cleveland, OH/Lake Ridge Academy), St. Francis Brooklyn junior guard Nevena Dimitrijevic (Kragujevac, Serbia/Druga Kragujevaca Gimnazija) and fellow Terrier Ally Lassen (Point Pleasant, NJ/Point Plesant Borough), a fifth-year forward, each claimed All-NEC honors for the third year running.

Harrison, a third team pick, averaged 10.2 points and was one of the NEC's top three-point shooters this season, knocking down 47 to rank fourth with 2.0 makes per contest. Dimitrijevic and Lassen, who were each named to the second team, provided a one-two punch for a St. Francis Brooklyn offense that was the best in the circuit. The duo accounted for 37.5 percent of a Terriers' offense that put up 64.5 points per contest, a figure that was elevated to 66.1 ppg in NEC action. Lassen averaged 12.5 ppg to rank seventh in the conference while Dimitrijevic, who finished second on the circuit in assists with 4.7 per game, contributed 10.6 ppg.

Claiming two of the four major awards while placing Stanley on the NEC first team, junior guard Aniya Bell (Washington, DC/Bishop McNamara) and sophomore forward Chloe Wilson (Freeport, NY/South Shore) were each voted to the third team to push FDU's postseason hardware total to five, a league-high.

Wilson, a Freeport, NY native who earned All-Rookie team laurels a year ago, was the lone underclassman to make an All-NEC team. The sophomore nearly kept pace with Knights' leading scorer and Player of the Year Stanley (12.3 ppg), averaging 12.2 ppg. Pulling down 6.1 boards per game, including a team-high 2.6 on the offensive glass, Wilson was pesky on the defensive end, leading FDU with 31 steals (1.4 per game). Bell, another threat in FDU's deep scoring arsenal, had a sensational conference slate after averaging 13.2 ppg to rank among the NEC's top five. She closed out the regular season averaging 11.1 pg.

Bryant graduate center Brooke Bjelko (Plattsburgh, NY/Beekmantown) and Merrimack senior guard Kate Mager (New City, NY/Albertus Magnus) rounded out this year's repeat All-NEC honorees. Mager, who registered her 1,000th career point this season, earned a promotion from the third team to the second team. The sharp shooter was just one of two NEC guards to knock down 50 three-pointers this season, as she finished second with 56 makes behind 44.8 percent shooting. Bjelko, who was fourth in the league in scoring (13.3 ppg), third in rebounding (7.3 rpg) and third in blocks (1.3 bpg), added a second team accolade to last season's first team honor.    

The All-NEC list has been bolstered by the addition of four all-conference first timers in Bell, CCSU senior center Ashley Berube (Londonberry, NH/Tilton), Wagner senior guard Zhaneia Thybulle (Elmont, NY/Elmont Memorial (UNC Wilmington)) and Sacred Heart junior guard Sonia Smith (Upper Marlboro, MD/National Christian Academy). A 1,000-point scorer and second team selection for the Blue Devils, Berube's finesse under the rim and her ability to capitalize with her back to the basket led to the veteran ranking second in the conference in scoring with 14.3 ppg. Thybulle, who pushed the Seahawks' All-NEC picks to three, emerged as one of the league's top playmakers. In addition to a 9.7 point-per-game average, the Elmont, NY product handed out 4.8 dimes per contest to lead the circuit. Thybulle dished 5-or-more helpers 16 times this season, with a pair of 11-assist outings going down as the top single-game performances in the league this season. Smith was a jack-of-all-trades for the Pioneers. The junior averaged 13.5 points, 4.3 assists and 1.8 steals to rank among the NEC's top-four in each category.

The future looks bright for LIU, which placed a pair of newcomers on the NEC All-Rookie team. O'Brien and Danielle Grim (Columbus, OH/Bishop Watterson) repped the Sharks on the list after accounting for more than 20 percent of LIU's scoring during NEC play with averages of 10.4 and 3.5 points per game, respectively.

With guard Jaila Lee's (Brentwood, TN/Brentwood Academy) All-Rookie team nod, St. Francis Brooklyn has placed one newcomer on the list in four straight seasons, as she joins Fruzsina Horvath (2020-21), Dmitrijevic (2019-20) and Ebony Horton (2018-19). Making appearances in 10 league games, the Volunteer State product averaged 6.3 points and 18.6 minutes per game. Additionally, she earned NEC Rookie of the Week honors three times.

Taking home four Rookie of the Week awards — the second-most this season behind O'Brien's eight honors — Lina Loceniece (Liepaja, Latvia, Liepaja State First Gymnasium) emerged as one of Wagner's top threats from behind the arc. More than 65 percent of the guard's scoring was done from three-point territory, where she led the Seahawks with 42 makes on the year, including 25 in NEC play. Loceniece averaged 7.3 points per game in her debut season.

Forward Maiya Bergdorf (Belmont, MA/St. Mary's) is Sacred Heart's third All-Rookie team selection in as many seasons. Emerging as a starter and seeing a significant increase in minutes in the final stretch of the regular season, she averaged 3.6 points and 3.9 rebounds per game for the Pios. 

About The Northeast Conference

Now in its 41st season, the Northeast Conference is an NCAA Division I collegiate athletic association consisting of 10 institutions of higher learning located throughout seven states. Media coverage of the NEC extends to a number of the largest markets in the United States - New York (#1), Boston (#9), Baltimore (#26), Hartford/New Haven (#33) and Providence (#53). Founded in 1981 as the basketball-only ECAC Metro Conference, the NEC has grown to sponsor 24 championship sports for men and women and now enjoys automatic access to 16 different NCAA Championships. NEC member institutions include Bryant, Central Connecticut, Fairleigh Dickinson, LIU, Merrimack, Mount St. Mary's, Sacred Heart, St. Francis Brooklyn, Saint Francis U and Wagner. For more information on the NEC, visit the league's official website (www.northeastconference.org) and digital network (www.necfrontrow.com), or follow the league on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, all @NECsports.