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Vican named Florida Sun Conference Rookie, Player of the Year

Published on 2/22/2007
Freshman becomes first player in league history to sweep honors as league hands out annual awards

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Northwood University (Fla.) freshman Katie Vican was named the Florida Sun Conference Rookie and Player of the Year, league officials announced Thursday evening. Freshmen Bari Levy and Kara Otterbine were also recognized as they joined Vican on the All-Conference team.

"We're very excited that our girls were recognized in our first year of competition," head coach John Thurston said. "Having the only three freshmen on the All-Conference team is recognition of the hard work that our girls put in this season. Katie Vican's honor of being named both rookie and player of the year is extremely rare at any level of college basketball. In fact, she may be the only one with that dual honor in college basketball this season."

With the announcement, Vican becomes the first player in Florida Sun Conference history to win both awards in the same season. The Wrightsville, Pa. product led the circuit with 14.9 points as she reached double figures in scoring in 22 of 29 games played this season with seven outings of 20 points or more. The three-time FSC Player of the Week also added 6.8 rebounds (fifth best in the league) 2.1 assists and 1.4 steals as she helped the Seahawks to an 18-12 overall and a share of the Florida Sun Conference regular season crown in their first season of competition.

Vican was one of three Seahawks to earn all-conference accolades as Levy and Otterbine were also named to the 12-player . Levy was second on the team in scoring with 10.6 points per game and added 5.6 rebounds and 1.4 assists in 30 contests. Otterbine, meanwhile, pitched in 9.7 points on a league-best .559 field goal percentage and tossed in a team-best 7.3 rebounds per contest.

The top-seed in the Florida Sun Conference tournament on the basis of a coin flip, Northwood returns to action Friday evening at 5 p.m. as they take on the winner of the quarterfinal contest between No. 4 Florida Memorial and No. 5 Edward Waters.