THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 9, 1995 TAG: 9503090576
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JULIE GOODRICH, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
Old Dominion made a clean sweep at the Colonial Athletic Association's awards banquet Wednesday, bringing home all three of the conference's major honors as voted by the coaches.
Sophomore forward Clarisse Machanguana was the big winner for the Lady Monarchs, earning the Player of the Year award. She led the CAA in shooting percentage (60.5 percent) and was second in the league in scoring (17.0 ppg) and rebounding (9.1 rpg). Machanguana was also selected to the All-Rookie team.
``I was surprised, because I didn't start the season well,'' she said. ``I got better in the middle, but at the end my scoring wasn't as well as I'd like it.''
Machanguana is the only player in CAA history to be named Player of the Year in their first year of college basketball.
ODU started raking in the awards early, with sophomore point guard Ticha Penicheiro earning Rookie of the Year honors. Penicheiro led the league in assists (6.4 per game) and steals (4.1).
Penicheiro also was a first-team All-CAA selection.
``Honestly, I was expecting to be named to the All-Defensive team because of my steals,'' she said.
Moments after Penicheiro left the podium, it was Wendy Larry's turn for the spotlight. She earned Coach of the Year honors for the second time in three years.
Two other Lady Monarchs earned distinctions. Junior Shonda Deberry was named to the All-Academic team, and sophomore Esther Benjamin was selected to the All-Defensive team.
ALL-DECADE: Former Old Dominion standout Celeste Hill was named to the CAA All-Decade team, garnering the most votes (7,517) of any frontcourt player. Hill finished as runner-up to James Madison's Sydney Beasley in Player of the Decade voting.
Joining Hill on the All-Decade first team are Beasley, JMU's Missy Dudley and Floretta Jackson, and East Carolina's Tonya Hargrove.
JMU's Sheila Moorman was selected as Coach of the Decade. ILLUSTRATION: [From page C1]
ODU SWEEPS CONFERENCE AWARDS
COACH OF THE YEAR
Wendy Larry
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
Ticha Penicheiro
TOURNAMENT GLANCE
[For a copy of the schedule, see microfilm for this date.]
by CNB