Syracuse, NY — The State University of New York at New Paltz women's basketball team was honored Tuesday by the SUNYAC, as three Hawks were named to the annual All SUNYAC squad, along with Coaching Staff of the Year honors. 
 
For the second consecutive year, SUNY New Paltz earned three selections to the al-conference squad. Additionally, Brianna Fitzgerald was named SUNYAC Player of the Year and head coach Jamie Seward and assistant coach Darren Jackson were named the SUNYAC Coaching Staff of the Year.
 
To view the full 2023 All SUNYAC Women's Basketball team, click here.
 
The Hawks had one of the best regular seasons in program history after going 18-0 in the SUNYAC, the first for the team. They boasted arguably the deepest lineup in the SUNYAC and in turn, had three selections in Fitzgerald, who became just the second player ever in program history named to Player of the Year honors, joining second team selection Lexi Van Vorst and third teamer, Jenny Walton — both of whom earning their first All-SUNYAC recognition of their careers.
 
"Obviously, we thought Graci [Serravillo] should have been on the all-conference team as well. We thought she was the best point guard in the league and certainly deserves to be on that in our opinion, but we also know there are a lot of good players. Someone is always going to get left off who is deserving," Seward said. "But, as far as the three who were put on the team, they did seem to step up in our most important games and when we needed them the most. When we had games that we needed to win, you looked at the box score and quite often those three had, 18, 24 and 17 [points] or something along those lines. I think they also set the tone for how we as a team played — along with Graci and Abby [Korzekwinski], our five starters — starting games and starting halves. That's kind of what we became known for over the course of a season was getting out to strong starts in the game and getting off to strong starts in the second half that really put our opponents on their heels and made it difficult to play the rest of the game when you're looking up right from the start."
 
Continue reading to view all three of SUNY New Paltz's 2023 All SUNYAC selections.

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First Team/Player of the Year:

Brianna Fitzgerald (junior, guard/forward) 
Dix Hills, NY/Island Trees HS
 
The Hawks' all-everything leader, Fitzgerald becomes only the second in program history to earn Player of the Year honors, the first being Lindsay Bettke in 2019.
 
Fitzgerald collects her second consecutive First-Team All SUNYAC honor, marking only the fifth time since 1988 that a Hawk has been named to the first team twice. Fitzgerald was also named SUNYAC Rookie of the Year — along with Region III Rookie of the Year — in her first season. And, after leading her team in scoring a season ago, she upped her numbers and became one of the most dominant players in the country.
 
"Any time I've ever watched film with her and shown her she's incorporating it the next day," Seward said of Fitzgerald. "Even just the day to day in practice, you see her try to do it the next time and even if it means taking away something that she does easily, she does try to work on the thing that she needs to work on. She is just really coachable on top of basketball intelligent and able to have that aptitude to utilize all the physical skills. A lot of players are talented, they're quick, they're athletic, they're long, but they don't know how to put themselves in position to take advantage of those things and she is really smart and understands how the game is played and how to manipulate the game to put herself in position to do things she does well."
 
Fitzgerald, who started 26 of 27 games on the year, leads the Hawks in 10 statistical categories: points scored (420); points per game (15.6); rebounds (197); rebounds per game (7.3); assists (80); steals (63); blocks (18); field goals made/attempted (152/320); free throws made/attempted (95/128) and minutes played (746).
 
With SUNY New Paltz still having games to play, Fitzgerald already made the single-season program leaderboard, currently sitting fifth in points and is 10 steals away from cracking the top-10 in that category as well.
 
"In very limited minutes because of some of the margins we won games by, she didn't play a lot of minutes and yet, she statistically was ridiculous," Seward said. "She led our team in every major statistical category and she was in the top-four or five, maybe 10 at worst in every important statistical category from points to rebounds, to steals, to field goal percentage, she really did it all. Beginning of the year, midway point of the year, she was facilitating a lot and getting everyone involved and we kind of changed what we did to get her into a position to attack more, because she's so difficult to deal with. I think second half of the year, she was pretty much unguardable."
 
In SUNYAC play, Fitzgerald started 17 of 18 games. She was selected SUNYAC Athlete of the Week three times over the season and averaged 14.8 points per game (third in SUNYAC), 6.8 rebounds per game (seventh in SUNYAC), had 55 assists (second in SUNYAC) and 43 steals (first in SUNYAC) with 13 blocks. Fitzgerald hit for double figures in 13 of 18 games, with a season high of 31 points against Cortland (2/4/23), which was the fifth-most scoring output by a Hawk ever joining just six others to reach the 30-point threshold. She pulled down season highs of 13 rebounds against Oneonta (1/7/23), eight assists against Potsdam (2/18/23), six steals versus Buffalo State (12/10/22) and had two blocks in two separate games. She finished the regular season and two games in the SUNYAC Tournament averaging nearly 22 points, eight rebounds, four assists and three steals per game and was named to the SUNYAC All-Tournament team after posting 19 and 28 points, respectively in the semi-and final rounds with a combined 16 rebounds and six assists while shooting 52 percent from the field.  

 
"Every game she'd fill up the stat sheet in every way and in such an efficient way," Seward added. "It's just really impressive, but it's crazy because I don't think those statistical measures really demonstrate her value to the team. She's just did so many things. She plays so hard, helped the team in so many ways that don't show up statistically and yet, she was such a statistical dominator and that still doesn't tell the whole story."
 
 
Second Team:

Lexi Van Vorst (senior, guard)
East Greenbush, NY/Columbia HS
 
Van Vorst rounds out a stellar and steady career as a Hawk with her first All-SUNYAC selection. The senior from East Greenbush, NY had a career senior season, establishing herself as one of the best guards in the league with her scoring ability and as a high-caliber defender, in consideration for the league's Defensive Player of the Year honors.
 
Van Vorst was a big reason in SUNY New Paltz becoming one of the best defensive teams in the country, ranking eighth in scoring defense and 36th in turnovers forced.
 
"To go from the beginning of her junior year where it was borderline a liability defensively to being a plus-defender by the end of the year, to be an absolute standout defender, maybe the best defender we've ever had and certainly one of the best defenders we've ever had in our program — yeah, that's pretty good growth," Seward said.
 
Van Vorst started in 26 of 27 games, totaling 21.2 minutes played per game and averaged eight points (third on the team) and 2.1 rebounds, while finishing second on the team in assists (57) and third in steals (45). The senior hit 31 3's on the year, second best on the team and made 74 shots from the field, fourth-most for SUNY New Paltz.
 
In the conference, she started 16 of 17 contests, averaging 7.3 points per game, with 34 rebounds, 42 assists, 28 steals and three blocks. She had three games in double figures, highlighted by a 20-point outing against Cortland (1/20/23). She shot 5-for-8 on 3-point shooting twice and had five assists twice and four steals once on the year.
 
In the postseason thus far, Van Vorst combined for 26 points, five rebounds, six assists and five steals, and was named to her second-straight SUNYAC All-Tournament team after helping the Hawks to their fourth-straight SUNYAC finals appearance.
 
With still games left to play this season, she enters the NCAA Tournament with career totals of 377 points, 383 assists and 178 steals, while amassing career-highs in rebounds (58), assists (57 and steals (45) already this season.
 
"I was talking to [assistant coach] Darren [Jackson] the other day and we think she's the best two-way guard in the history of our program as far as offense and defense, what she brings to the table," Seward said. "Offensively, she added a layer that wasn't always in her game of being able to create for other people this year. Having multiple five, six-assist games this year and obviously, she always could score from the perimeter, but her ability to get to the basket and finish strong and get to the foul line and finish in the paint confidently around bigger defenders and what she's been defensively — she's probably the best two-way guard that's ever played here, which is saying a lot because we've had some really good ones whether it's Maliqua Fisher or Marion Dietz and some others that certainly fit the bill as well, but Lexi is right there on top of that list."
 

Third Team:

Jenny Walton (junior, guard)
Glenwood Landing, NY/North Shore Sr. HS
 
Walton may have had the biggest jump in year two for the Hawks. The junior guard broke into the starting lineup after having an impressive offseason where she became a complete player on both ends of the floor.
 
"Jenny had a huge year. I think Jenny was one of the main reasons for our big jump as a team this year, because Jenny had such a big leap as an individual," Seward said. "It rounded out our team and gave us another two-way player who can both play defense and offense. Jenny is another player who just expanded her game. She came in with the billing of just a shooter, couldn't do much going to the basket and she became more of driver first and can shoot the ball now."
 
Starting 25 of 26 regular season games, she was second in scoring 253 points for a 9.7 points per game average. She averaged 3.5 rebounds per game and had 24 assists, was second in steals with 46 and in field goals made/attempted (92-for-263) and was fourth in minutes played with 564. She posted 21 points in SUNY New Paltz's semifinal win over Geneseo, shooting 9-for-15 in 26 minutes, while adding four steals, two rebounds and two assists on the afternoon to help her team to their fourth-straight SUNYAC semifinal appearance.
 
Starting 17 of 18 SUNYAC games, Walton averaged 8.8 points and three rebounds per game with 30 steals. She had eight double figure games, topped by a 20-point night against Potsdam (2/18/23), shooting 5-for-7 from the 3-point line. She had a season high of seven rebounds versus Plattsburgh (2/17/23) and had three steals in three different games this season, all before entering the season with a career-high 25 point performance on 5-for-9 shooting from the perimeter with six rebounds and an assist to open up the year in a win over Mt. Saint Mary College.

"I think her growth on the defensive end was the biggest improvement and significance for our team," Seward said. "Her on the ball, off the ball, she just became a high-level defender and multiple coaches set things to us about her and her development as a defensive player. She certainly became one of the best players in the league and really established herself from game one, scored 20-something against Mt. Saint Mary and then established herself as a defensive player the rest of the season and had a really strong finish to the season offensively to really stamp herself as one of the best two-way players in the conference."
 
 
SUNYAC Coaching Staff of the Year:

Head coach Jamie Seward (16 years) &
Assistant coach Darren Jackson (11 years)