NEW HAVEN, CT (Oct. 19, 2011)  - Stephanie Puentes of Goldey-Beacom College has been selected the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) Women's Tennis Player and Rookie of the Year in balloting released today. Albert Stroble of Chestnut Hill College was named Coach of the Year for the second straight season, while Post University was given the annual Team Sportsmanship Award. The voting was conducted by the conference's nine head coaches.

In addition to Puentes, Chestnut Hill's Nastia Shcherbakova and Kelly Dennis were first team picks, along with Holy Family University's Juliana Victoria and Jin Querubin and Concordia College's Yuliya Plevako.  

The second team features three Concordia Clippers, including seniors Clara Catanzano and Juliana Frey and junior Ana S.O. Mendes. Goldey-Beacom teammates Melanie Bonomo and Marina Sales and Chestnut Hill's Maria Parapouras round out the second team.

Puentes, who hails from Bogota, Columbia, has enjoyed a remarkable rookie campaign for the Lightning as she marched to a 7-1 singles record and 5-3 doubles mark in conference action this season. Along the way, she handed Concordia's Plevako her first-ever conference loss in 20 matches and bested previously undefeated Juliana Victoria of Holy Family.  She earned three CACC Rookie of the Week awards, and was honored as Player of the Week once.