Basketball Announces Award Winners at Team Banquet

Klein Takes Home Top Honor For Third Straight Season

Kailey Klein

May 6, 2009

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Junior Kailey Klein won the top honor for the third straight season when the women's basketball awards were announced on Saturday, May 3, at the annual team banquet.

"Although we didn't accomplish our ultimate goal of winning another Horizon League Championship, we still had an outstanding season and the team banquet was a wonderful way for us to end our season," head coach Kate Peterson Abiad said.

"I am extremely pleased with the way this program has taken off, especially over the last two years. And that is a testament to all the hard work that these student-athletes put in on a daily basis."

CSU finished the season with a 19-13 overall mark, finishing third in the Horizon League at 12-6. The 12 league wins set a school-record.

Klein, who became just the third player in school history to win the Varsity "C" Award in three straight seasons, was a first team All-Horizon League selection and the league Co-Player of the Year. She finished second in the league and 55th in the nation, averaging 16.9 points per game, while ranking among the league leaders in minutes played, assists, free throw percentage, three-point field goal percentage and three-pointers made. The Cherry, Ill., native will enter her senior season fourth on the all-time scoring chart in CSU history with 1,514 points, just 337 points shy of breaking the career scoring mark.

In other awards presented, junior Jessica Roque won the Viking Award and Free Throw Excellence Award, while senior Dominique Butler earned the Rebounding Excellence Award and shared Defensive Player of the Year honors with sophomore Shawnita Garland.

The Viking Award is presented to the player who epitomizes what it means to be a Cleveland State women's basketball player, showing hard work and dedication every day, no matter the situation.

It's no wonder that Roque earned this award. After starting all 30 games as a freshman, she was asked to fill a different role as a sophomore and became CSU's first substitute off the bench. This year, she was back in the starting lineup as the off-guard, but was forced to move into the starting point guard role midway through the season due to injuries. Through it all, she never changed her work ethic and always put the team first, averaging 10.8 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game this season.

She also won the Free Throw Excellence Award, presented to the player with the highest free throw percentage with a minimum of one-and-a-half free throws per game. Roque, who had a streak of 22 consecutive free throws made, shot 84-percent (52-62) from the line.

Butler picked up the Rebounding Excellence Award for the second consecutive season, finishing fourth in the Horizon League with 6.8 rebounds per game. She led the team in rebounding 15 times, including a career-high tying 13 boards in a win over Illinois State. She became the 15th player in school history to grab 500 career rebounds early in the season and finished her career with 674 boards, good for eighth on the career list at CSU.

It was also the second straight season that Butler won the Defensive Player of the Year Award. However, this year, she shared it with Garland after the two shared top billing in the league as the Co-Defensive Players of the Year.

Butler, who became just the fourth player in league history to earn a spot on the all-defensive team in four straight seasons, finished 32nd in the nation and third in the league in steals. A two-time Horizon League Defensive Player of the Year, Butler concluded her career with 296 steals, third all-time at CSU. She made a career-high 10 steals in a win at Milwaukee, which represented the second most steals in a Division I game this season and the second most steals by a player in program history.

Garland emerged as one of the top defensive players in the league this season, ranking 17th in the country and second in the conference with 2.8 steals per game. She made multiple steals in 25 of the 32 games, while also ranking fourth on the team with 4.3 rebounds per game. A second team All-Horizon League selection, Garland recorded a career-high five steals in the season opener at 17th-ranked Arizona State and went on to tie that career-high four more times.