LOCK HAVEN, Pa.- The Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) released its women's basketball All-Conference selections on Thursday afternoon, and West Chester had four players honored along two Major Award Winners as
Michelle Kozicki (Wilmington, Del./Padua) earned PSAC East Defensive Player of the Year honors while
Kiera Wooden claimed PSAC East Coach of the Year honors.
Leah Johnson (Columbus, N.J./Notre Dame) earned First Team All-League honors for the second year in a row, while
Emily McAteer (Thornton, Pa./Garnet Valley) was also named to the First Team. Kozicki was honored on the Second Team and was joined by fellow sophomore
Anna McTamney (Plymouth Meeting, Pa./Plymouth Whitemarsh) as another Second Team honoree for the Golden Rams.
Kozicki, who is the Golden Rams first PSAC East Defensive Player of the Year honoree since Alexandra Lennon was honored at the end of the 2012-13 season, has enjoyed an outstanding 2023 season, scoring 360 points, averaging 13.3 per game while also ranking 10
th in the league in steals with 53 on the regular season. Pulling down an average of 8.6 rebounds per game, Kozicki has been a key piece for West Chester as the Golden Rams have consistently won the rebounding battle throughout the 2022-23 season.
Wooden picks up her first Coach of the Year honors since the 2017-18 campaign, which was also the last time that West Chester won at least a share of the PSAC East Regular Season title and advanced to the Semifinals of the PSAC Tournament. Wooden has overseen one of the best turnarounds in recent memory, guiding West Chester to a regular-season record of 21-7, including a pair of wins over ranked foes in Jefferson and Gannon earlier in the season. With a share of the PSAC East Regular Season title for the first time since 2017-18, West Chester won its first home quarterfinal since that season in dominant fashion last night, cruising to a 76-61 victory over Millersville to return to the PSAC Semifinals.
Johnson, who has appeared in all 29 games and logged well over 1,000 minutes played this season, has been one of the top players in the league throughout the year, averaging 15.3 points per game through the regular season and scored in double figures in 25 of 28 games. The junior guard scored a career-high 38 at West Virginia State in the second game of the season, which was the most scored by a Golden Ram in a single game since a 38-point effort by Patti Gruber against AIC in 1990. Johnson, who became the fourth player in school history to record a triple-double earlier this season in a win over Mansfield, registered 173 rebounds and a single-season record 187 assists on the year. Johnson's 187 assists broke the single-season record previously held by Colleen McNamara from the 1988-89 season and also helped her rank in the top five in the Nation in assists throughout the year, ranking fourth in Division II at the end of the regular season.
McAteer, the second First Team All-Conference honoree for the Golden Rams, logged 11 double-doubles in the regular season, leading the team in scoring and rebounding. The junior forward averaged 15.6 points and 8.5 rebounds per game while scoring in double figures in 25 of 28 games, including 11 in a row during East play. She secured a season-high 15 rebounds vs Lincoln earlier in the season and shot an impressive 52.3 % (161-of-308) from the field while also earning PSAC East Athlete honors once during the regular season.
McTamney is the final All-Conference honoree for West Chester this season, appearing and starting in all 28 regular season games and averaging 13.3 points per game over that span. She scored a season-high 30 in the win over nationally-ranked Jefferson earlier this year, while also in double figures in 21 of 28 games. The sophomore guard shot 44.8 % from the field and finished the year with 146 rebounds, including double-doubles against Shippensburg and Lock Haven during East play. She also finished the year with 44 assists, 33 steals, and 20 blocks to help West Chester to its first 20-win campaign since the 2017-18 campaign.
West Chester returns to action on Saturday afternoon against second-seed California beginning at 1 p.m at Gannon in the Semifinal Round of the PSAC Tournament. With a victory, West Chester would advance back to the Conference Title game for the first time since the 2014-15 season.
