Members of the Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team took six honors when the RSEQ announced its all-star teams and major awards this afternoon.
Goaltender Katherine Purchase is the high-achiever on the team with three honors. She is the RSEQ rookie of the year and goes forward as one of four finalists for the outstanding CIS rookie. The 18-year-old native of Halifax is also a second team all-star and a member of the league’s all-rookie team.
With a 1.07 goals-against average and a save percentage of .959, she leads both the CIS and the RSEQ. She played 11 of the Stingers’ 20 regular season games allowing just 12 goals and recording two shutouts.
Purchase is an Accounting major and had a perfect 4.3 GPA in her first semester.
“She’s a young athlete with lots of upside,” said Stingers head coach Les Lawton. “Our players are confident skating in front of her. Even though she’s in her first year, we’re very happy with her progress and she’s way ahead of where we thought she would be.”
Lawton was named the RSEQ Coach of the Year. He has been working hard taking his program through a rebuilding phase and made great strides this year. The Stingers posted an 8-7-5 record and finished in third place. Over the course of the season, they defeated both McGill and Montréal who were ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the CIS, respectively, at the time.
Defender Marie-Joëlle Allard was named to the first all-star team. The second-year player from Victoriaville, Que., had two goals and eight assists in 20 games this season. She was on the RSEQ all-rookie team last year.
Finally rookie forward Devon Thompson of Châteauguay, Que. earned a place on the RSEQ all-rookie team. She was the leading goal scorer on the Stingers with seven goals, including four power-play markers. She also had one assist for eight points on the season.
