Jessica Canary earns First Team honors for UIndy

INDIANAPOLIS -- The University of Indianapolis women's basketball team took home a bevy of honors recently with the announcement of the All-Great Lakes Valley Conference Teams.

Headlining the honorees was junior forward Samantha Meissel, the 2010 GLVC Player of the Year. Also garnering mention were senior Jessica Canary (first team), senior Katie Dewey (third team), and head coach LeAnn Freeland (Coach of the Year).

Samantha Meissel garnered her second straight All-GLVC First Team nod, while becoming the fourth Greyhound women to be named the league's player of the year.

The Terre Haute, Ind. native averages 5.0 rebounds and a league-high 19.6 points per game, while also ranking third in the conference field goal percentage (.567). Meissel enters play this week needing 13 points to become just the sixth player in program history to record 1,500 career points.

Joining Meissel on the first team was senior guard Jessica Canary. The versatile guard ranks in the league's top 16 in scoring, rebounding, assists, blocks and free throw percentage. Canary, an All-GLVC Second Team honoree last year, is on track to become the first player in program history to finish her career with over 1300 points, 600 rebounds and 400 assists. It marks second major award for Canary recently, as she was named to the 2009-10 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America College Division Third Team.

She is averaging 14.4 points, 5.7 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 1.3 steals per game this season.

Fellow senior Katie Dewey (Indianapolis, Ind./Franklin Central) also received recognition Friday with an All-GLVC Third Team nod, the first all-conference honor of her career.

The four-year starting point guard needs five steals to become just the second Greyhound ever to record 300 career thefts. Dewey, who ranks first in the GLVC and 21st in the nation in steals, also has 455 assists and 107 made 3-pointers in for time at UIndy, good for sixth and eighth, respectively, in the program's career annuls. She is averaging 9.4 points, 4.4 rebounds, 5.2 assists and 3.0 steals per game this season.

Also among the list of honorees was UIndy head coach LeAnn Freeland, the 2010 GLVC 'Chuck Mallender' Coach of the Year award winner. Freeland, who guided the Hounds to a program-record 24-game win streak earlier this season, picks up her first coach of the year honor in just her third season as a head coach.

Coming off a "Sweet 16" showing in last year's NCAA Tournament, the Greyhounds are headed for their third straight NCAA appearance on Freeland's watch.

Coach Freeland and the No. 3 Greyhounds (25-2, 16-2 GVLC) begin postseason play this weekend by hosting a GLVC Tournament quarterfinal game.

The Hounds face the winner of Saturday's St. Joseph's and Missouri-St. Louis first-round match-up on Sunday afternoon.