CALGARY– Valerie Lamenta, a second-year goaltender from the University of Guelph, was named the CIS player of the year in women’s hockey Wednesday night.
Lamenta, a mechanical engineering student from Montreal, became the first Gryphon to claim the Brodrick Trophy and only the third netminder to receive the honour since the sport made its CIS debut in 1997-98, joining Liz Knox of Wilfrid Laurier (2010) and Olympic gold medallist Kim St-Pierre of McGill (2003).
“Valerie has become a leader for us both on the ice and in the classroom,” said Guelph head coach Rachel Flanagan in a press release. “Not only has she established herself as our No. 1, but also as one of the top goalies in the entire CIS. She is talented, competitive and, above all else, extremely humble. We’re so proud of her for this accomplishment.”
This season Lamenta was the best goalie in Canada across all categories with a 0.99 GAA, a .957 save percentage and a 16-2 record.
Thanks in large part to her stellar play, the Gryphons topped the OUA standings with a CIS-best mark of 21-2-1 and reached the top of the national rankings for the first time in program history in mid-November, a position they held on to for the rest of the season.
Other CIS award winners announced in Calgary were Ottawa forward Mélodie Bouchard, who was named the rookie of the year; Alberta forward Janelle Froehler, who merited the Marion Hilliard Award celebrating excellence in athletics, academics and community involvement; as well as Saint Mary’s bench boss Chris Larade, who was selected as the TIMEX coach of the year.
The CIS championship, hosted for the second straight year by the University of Calgary, gets under way Thursday at the Markin MacPhail Centre and culminates Sunday at 12:30 p.m. MT (2:30 p.m. ET) with the gold-medal final, live on Sportsnet 360 and TVA Sports 2. Saturday’s semifinals are also televised live on Sportsnet ONE (2 p.m. & 5:30 p.m. MT) and all 11 games from the eight-team competition will be webcast on www.CIS-SIC.tv.