Cortland, NY — The State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) announced its yearly All-Conference winners Friday and five players from the State University of New York at New Paltz were named to the All-SUNYAC team.

Hawks junior forward Carly Croteau, freshman forward Natasia Plunkett and sophomore midfielder/back Jessica Ascencao earned First-Team All-SUNYAC honors, while sophomore midfielder Shannon Bernhardt and sophomore goalkeeper were named Second-Team All-SUNYAC.

Croteau and Ascencao both were recognized with All-SUNYAC nods. Croteau earned her first First-Team selection, while Ascencao was saw her second-straight First-Team All-SUNYAC selection after also touting SUNYAC Rookie of the Year honors last season. Bernhardt, Plunkett and Mortimer were all named to their first all-conference honors of their young Hawks careers.
After being named Second-Team All-SUNYAC last season, Croteau followed up with another standout year offensively for SUNY New Paltz. One of the fastest forwards in the league, Croteau was a matchup nightmare for opposing defenders. She improved her craft in her third year and utilized her blazing speed to put up eight goals and five assists for 21 points on the year.

"Carly really stepped up big this year," said SUNY New Paltz coach Shanna Szablinski. "She is someone who is consistently working hard to generate attack. Her ability to break through in our attacking end with her elimination and acceleration this year has approved greatly. She was able to break down a lot of defenses with her speed, get into the circle and get scoring opportunities. She is just intense, and you can see it and it is just fun to watch. She works really hard to win the ball back and that made huge difference in keeping the ball in our attacking 50."

Croteau had 10 games where she totaled two or more points, with her season-high coming against Morrsiville Oct. 19 when she scored two goals and added an assist to help her team to an 11-0 win. She started all 18 games in 2019 and was second on the team in shots (66) and shots on goal (47) with three game winning goals.
"You saw major strides from her freshman year to her sophomore year to now," Szablinski said. "She is more confident as a player. She takes more risks with the ball and she has the ability to eliminate at speed, which is something that came about really this year."
Plunkett was a welcome addition in her first year for SUNY New Paltz. She started 16 of 18 games and totaled eight goals on the season, but accounted for many more scoring opportunities for the Hawks that wasn't accounted for on the stat sheet. She was productive every time she stepped foot on the turf with her ability to get into the circle and make a play, either with the right decision on a pass, a shot or earning a corner for her team. She becomes the second-straight freshman to earn First-Team All-SUNYAC honors, joining Ascenco last season. Her best statistical performance came in a regular season matchup against SUNY Cortland where Plunkett led the team with two goals in a tough, 3-2 overtime loss.

"She is just determined when she has the ball and the thing about Natasia was that every time she drove into the circle, she had an outcome," Szablinski said. "It was either by drawing a corner, getting a shot off, having a successful pass, but she is one of those kids that when she gets the ball she is going to make something happen. Her circle entries have proved extremely positive and effective and I thought a lot of really talented top defenders that we played struggled to defend her, because she was so dynamic and she was quick with her movement. She changed the point of attack really well. We were more than pleased with Natasia with how she is. But another player like Carly, just feisty, aggressive, you can see the fire coming out of their eyes when they're playing."
Ascencao continued her successful young career in her second season with SUNY New Paltz. A reigning conference Rookie of the Year and All-Region selection, Ascencao is one of the most talented, and smartest players on the field. Along with her physical ability on the field, Ascencao became more of a vocal leader for the Hawks as well. She started all 18 games, playing a team-high 1,082 minutes, while leading the team in shots (79) and shots on goal (48), while finishing second for SUNY New Paltz in goals (10) and points (26).

"You can see Jess took on more of a vocal leader on the field this year, because she has such a great game sense and she has always played at a high level," Szablinski said. "She is able to read the play well and direct and guide the people around her. It has helped us to keep our middle secure and it has helped us defensively to be stronger. Jessie is just one of those players, not only has great game sense, but she's great at making decisions and seeing the play before it happens. You can tell through her actions that she is thinking one pass ahead. She's thinking one play ahead, and Jessie just had another tremendous season. She really can dictate the tempo of the game."
Bernhardt had a standout sophomore campaign for the Hawks and quickly became one of the most dangerous players on the field. Starting the year at forward, but playing the latter part on right side of the midfield line, Bernhardt was pivotal in the SUNY New Paltz's transition game and created another dimension offensively to make the Hawks more dangerous. She led her team with nine assists on the year, while also adding five goals for a career-high 19 points.

"Shannon did generate a lot of attack on our right side. She was really good in transition. She was good in transition from defense to attack, getting the ball up field to our forward's and feeding them or just creating opportunities going into the circle either with a pass or driving hard to the end line. She did a good job of being able to eliminate and then distribute, creating numbers up situations for us. I thought Shannon was really a driving force from transition from defense to attack."

Mackenzie Mortimer was the backup goalie last season SUNY New Paltz and didn't see a minute in action, but after a season-ending injury from reigning SUNYAC Tournament MVP Ryan Dowling early on in the year, the sophomore from Fairport, NY stepped up big for her team to lead the Hawks in net. 
Mortimer played in 14 games, starting the last 12 and logged more than 782 minutes of action. She totaled 84 saves on 118 shots faced for a .800 save percentage with three shutouts and a 7-5 record. In her first playoff action of her career Mortimer had one of her best performance on the road. Against rival the rival Red Dragons, Mortimer made 10 stops on 17 shots, including making a huge save on a stroke attempt early on in the game. She quickly stepped up from a backup role into a formidable starting goalkeeper in the conference.

"I think she progressed with the more experience she had and I think Mack's success came from her getting out of her comfort zone she had," Szablinski said. "I think Mack's success came from her getting out of her comfort zone and taking risks on the field, and that started in practice. Everything was play it safe, stay back on your line, and then we really challenged her to play attacking goalkeeping and she did a great job when she started to take risks at practice and implemented what she was doing in the games and came up big towards the end. She made some significant changes and that's something you could ask for, you can only hope that they could do."

Despite coming up short of expectations in 2019, the Hawks are already looking forward to another SUNYAC title run in 2020 and get back into the NCAA Tournament. All five players honored Friday will be a vital part of those expectations next season, and Szablinski was excited to have each individual return for another run.

"Having them back is huge. I think the outcome we had this year they're not satisfied," she said. "They're really disappointed and they are focused on improvement and not letting what they did this year affect what we're going to do moving forward. I think this group, along with the team that is coming back. They are dedicated and committed to the success of our program. It will be fun to watch how they progress this spring, and the time they put in in the offseason to get better individually and collectively."

To see the full All-SUNYAC list, click here.

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