ST. PAUL, Minn. – The University of Minnesota Morris women's basketball team won three major awards and had three players earn All-UMAC honors in 2023-24, the conference office announced on Wednesday morning.

For the third year in a row, Jay Kwateh was named the UMAC Defensive Player of the Year. Maddy Grove's instant impact on the Cougar program earned her Freshman of the Year honors. The Coach of the Year award went to Tim Grove as a UMN Morris program that was picked third in the Preseason Poll finished alone in second place in the regular season and then won the conference tournament title on the road over top-seeded University of Wisconsin-Superior.

In addition to the Freshman of the Year award, Grove was named First Team All-UMAC. Grove was the conference's leading scorer in her first season, pouring in 16.9 points per game. That number rose even more in UMAC play as she averaged 18.1 points per game in 12 contests while shooting better than 47 percent from the floor. In the 25 games she has played this season, Grove has reached double-figures in all but two.

At this point, the UMAC Defensive Player of the Year award might as well be renamed in honor of Kwateh after the senior won it for the third straight time. Kwateh has been on another level this season, setting a single-season program record with 94 steals, including 65 in conference play. Those 94 steals rank ninth nationally in NCAA Division III this season. In addition to that award, Kwateh also unsurprisingly was named to the UMAC All-Defensive Team and was Honorable Mention All-UMAC as she chips in 7.8 points, 2.3 rebounds, and 2.5 assists per game (good for sixth in the conference).

In any other conference, Malory Anderson may well have been the Defensive Player of the Year, but the senior will have to settle for once again landing on the UMAC All-Defensive Team and taking home Honorable Mention All-UMAC recognition. Anderson has been the Swiss army knife of the Cougar team this season, filling up the stat sheet in a variety of ways. Anderson is the UMAC's leading rebounder at 9.0 per game (9.4 in conference games) and is second to Kwateh in the conference in steals with 81 on the year (3.0 per game). While her scoring has dipped to 5.1 points per game this season, she is also fifth in the UMAC in assists (2.5 per game) and leads the Cougars with 21 blocked shots.

Each season, one individual from each team in the UMAC is named a winner of the UMAC Sportsmanship Award. This year's winner for Minnesota Morris is senior Jadyn Sondrol. Sondrol has also been vital to the success of the Cougars this season as she averages 6.5 points and is second in the conference with 2.7 assists per game.

Tim Grove was named UMAC Coach of the Year for a sixth time after taking Minnesota Morris to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 2014-15 season. At 17-10, the Cougars have matched the 2019-20 team for the best record from the program in the past five seasons and the runner-up finish in the UMAC regular season is the team's best since 2016-17 – another season in which Grove won UMAC Coach of the Year. 

Minnesota Morris rolls into the NCAA Tournament on a five-game winning streak and travels to take on the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater on Friday night at 7:45 p.m.