The Empire 8 Conference has selected two members of the St. John Fisher College women’s basketball team to its annual All-Conference Team. Junior Center
Mary Kate Comfort and guard/forward
Colleen Maloney were each named to the Second Team, while junior
Christine Isselhard is Fisher’s representative on the Sportswoman of the Year Team.
Comfort, a three-year starter, leads the team in rebounding with an average 7.3 rebounds per game. She ranks second on the squad with 10.6 points per game, while leading the team in blocks (27) and ranking among the team leaders in assists (25) and steals (21). Comfort led the Cardinals in either scoring or rebounding 20 times in 25 total games, while collecting four double-doubles on the year, including a 15-point, 14-rebound effort in a 68-55 win over East Avenue-rival Nazareth College earlier in the season. This is the first time in her career Comfort has received All-Conference honors.
A sophomore sharpshooter, Maloney is the Cardinals’ leading scorer on the season with an average 12.1 points per game. Maloney leads the team with 32 successful 3-pointers (32-for-113), while ranking third on the team with 35 steals. She scored a career-high 22 points in the first game of the year, a one-point win over SUNY Geneseo, and came within a point of tying her personal-best mark on two more occasions throughout the year.
A junior forward, Isselhard grabbed a career-high 10 rebounds on two separate occasions in reserve action this year, and tallied a new career-high for points in a game (10) in the final game of the season against Empire 8 foe Elmira College, before being named as Fisher’s representative on the Sportswoman of the Year Team. One member of each team was named that institution’s representative on the 2009 Women’s Basketball Sportswoman of the Year Team. Empire 8 emphasizes that "Competing with Honor and Integrity" is an essential component of a student-athlete’s experience in conjunction with an institution’s educational mission. These honorees have distinguished themselves and consistently exhibit the critical traits as outstanding sportswomen.
The Cardinals (16-9 overall, 9-7 Empire 8) claimed the No. 4 seed in this weekend’s Empire 8 Conference Championship and will take on top-seeded Ithaca College at 6 p.m. on Friday. Utica College is the tournament’s No. 2 seed and will take on No. 3 Stevens at 8 p.m. in the other semifinal matchup, with the winner of each game advancing to the finals at 7 p.m. on Saturday.