College Hockey America has announced its award winners for the 2023-24 season.
Penn State sophomore Tessa Janecke is the only dual winner this year as she was voted the Meghan Agosta Player of the Year and the CHA’s first Vicki Bendus Forward of the Year by CHA coaches. This season, Janecke became the 28th player in CHA history to record a 50-point season and skates into this weekend’s CHA championship with 53 points on 17 goals and 36 assists. Janecke also reached 100 career points during Penn State’s semifinal-clinching win over RIT on Feb. 24. Janecke took home the CHA scoring championship this season as the conference’s points leader in CHA contests. She tallied 35 points on 12 goals and 23 assists in 20 CHA games.
Syracuse senior Tatum White is the first winner of the CHA scholar-athlete of the year award, which recognizes a CHA student-athlete who excels in the classroom, community and on the ice. White has been a four-year contributor to the Syracuse program and ranks as one of the top faceoff specialists in the NCAA this season and throughout her career. A medicinal chemistry major, White has been named three times to the CHA all-academic team, AHCA All-America Scholar honor roll, College Sport Communicators all-district team and ACC academic honor roll during her career. At Syracuse, she is the co-chair of the SAAC Culture Committee, a member of the Diversity and Inclusion Student-Athlete Board and a Team IMPACT Fellow. White is also active in the community in Syracuse and her hometown of Kingston, Ont., volunteering at the Upstate Medical University Hospital, serving as a volunteer coach for minor hockey programs and provincial camps in Ontario and running her own youth hockey camp that she founded in Kingston in 2019.
Mercyhurst junior Sydney Pedersen is this year’s Molly Byrne Best Defenseman selection. Pedersen is the CHA’s active leader in defenseman scoring with 68 career points on 20 goals and 48 assists. This year, she has registered 26 points on seven goals and 19 assists while blocking 58 shots for the Lakers. She leads all CHA defensemen – and ranks No. 2 nationally among blueliners – in shots on goal this season with 124.
Mercyhurst graduate student Ena Nystrøm takes home her second consecutive Brianne McLaughlin Goaltender of the Year Award this season. She has posted a 20-15-1 mark in net for the Lakers this season with a 2.22 GAA and a .926 save percentage and is tied for third nationally in shutouts with six. She is one of three goaltenders nationally to surpass 1,000 saves this season (1,003) and enters the CHA championship with 2,577 saves in her Laker tenure to rank No. 6 on the CHA career saves list. Nystrøm also ranks in the CHA career top-10s for wins (fifth, 52), save percentage (sixth, .929), shutouts (tied for seventh, 14) and games (tied for ninth, 99).
Robert Morris freshman Alaina Giampietro takes home the Nicole Hensley Rookie of the Year Award, ending the season with 31 points on 19 goals and 12 assists. The goal total leads all CHA rookie is currently tied for the NCAA lead among freshmen. The Colonials forward was a two-time CHA rookie of the month selection and was tapped as the Hockey Commissioners Association national rookie of the month in October.
Mercyhurst junior Kylee Mahoney is the CHA best defensive forward this season as she won 55.3 percent of her faceoffs this season for the Lakers and has contributed 16 points on eight goals and eight assists to the Mercyhurst attack. She is the fifth Mercyhurst forward to win the award since its inception in 2010-11.
Mercyhurst junior Vanessa Upson is third consecutive Laker to win or share the CHA individual sportsmanship award. She has been whistled for just four minor penalties this season, including only one in 20 CHA contests, despite seeing significant ice time for the Lakers. Upson became the latest member of the CHA 100-point club during the Lakers’ CHA semifinal series as she turned in a seven-point weekend against the Colonials to move to 104 career points entering play this weekend.
Penn State’s Jeff Kampersal is the CHA coach of the year for the second season in a row and third time in his career. Kampersal led the Nittany Lions to a repeat performance as the CHA’s regular-season champion and has PSU poised to play for a second-consecutive CHA postseason title on Saturday. Penn State captured the CHA regular-season crown with a 14-4-2 mark in conference play and holds a 21-12-3 overall mark this season. In his 28 seasons as a head coach at Princeton and Penn State, Kampersal has amassed a career record of 445-339-98 (.560) and ranks No. 5 on the NCAA Division I career wins list.
