Five University of Toronto Varsity Blues squash players were named all-stars as the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) announced the 2008-09 squash award winners on Thursday, February 12th.

Stephanie Edmison (Toronto, Ont.) of the Western Mustangs is the women's player of the year for the second straight season. Edmison helped lead the Mustangs to an overall record of 3-1 on the season, and a match record of 19-5. She was perfect in three matches during the OUA season, including a 3-0 victory over McMaster's Sunayna Gupta (Toronto, Ont.) in the sectionals. The first team all-star also defeated Carly Hong (Toronto, Ont.) of McGill 3-0 (9-0, 9-1, 9-6) and Hilary Dugan (Sarnia, Ont.) of Queen's 3-0 (9-0, 9-1, 9-1) in the OUA crossovers.

With a 2-1 record this season, Edmison's teammate Kathleen Horman (Toronto, Ont.) is the women's rookie of the year. During the crossovers, Horman was victorious in two matches, a 3-0 (9-1, 9-1, 9-1) win over Tanya Starret-Visser (Montreal, Que.) of McGill and a 3-0 (9-1, 9-1, 9-2) sweep over Alison Wardlaw (London, Ont.) of Queen's.

On the men's side, Eric Dingle (Calgary, Alta.) of the Waterloo Warriors is a three-time men's player of the year. Dingle defeated Ahmed Shohayeb (Hamilton, Ont.) of McMaster 3-0 (9-7, 9-3, 9-3) and Ben Abraham (Fonthill, Ont.) of Brock 3-0 (9-1, 9-0, 9-0) in the OUA sectionals. He followed this up with 3-0 victories over Ahad Raza (Mississauga, Ont.) of Toronto (9-0, 9-5, 9-3), Alex Ford (London, Ont.) of Queen's (9-3, 9-1, 9-1) and Ben Marien (Westmount, Que.) of McGill (9-4, 9-2, 9-3) in the crossovers. Dingle finished with an overall regular season record of 5-1.

The men's rookie of the year is the Mustangs Ryan Herden (Vancouver, B.C.). Playing as the No. 2 seed at the sectionals, Herden swept his opponents by 3-0 scores, defeating Andy Roberts (Ottawa, Ont.) of Brock (9-4, 9-1, 9-7), Kyle Rabley (Waterloo, Ont.) of Waterloo (9-3, 9-0, 9-2) and Michael Fong (Barrie, Ont.) of McMaster (9-0, 9-0, 9-2).

The McMaster Marauders took both coaching awards. Doug Hamilton is the women's coach of the year, leading the Marauders to the OUA squash championships with an overall record of 2-2. Darryl White is the men's coach of the year following a 4-2 season that saw them go 21-15 in their matches.

Joining Edmison as women's OUA first team all-stars include Hong, Heather Lamb (Calgary, Alta.) of the Mustangs, Karlene Headley-Cooper (Mississauga, Ont.) of the Toronto Varsity Blues, Kristina Taylor (Ile Perrot, Que.) of the Marauders and Elizabeth France (Calgary, Alta.) of McGill.

Gupta and Dugan are second team all-stars, along with Varsity Blues players Megan Northey (Victoria, B.C.), Cami Marmoush (Cairo, Egypt) and Edith Chow (Thornhill, Ont.), and Rachael Forgeron (St. Catharines, Ont.) of Western.

Men's first team all-stars include Dingle, Marien, Raza, Shohayeb and Herden, along with Chris Hanebury (Ajax, Ont.) of the Mustangs.

Western’s Iain Crozier (Winnipeg, Ont.), Strachan Jarvis (Toronto, Ont.) and Kimesh Chetty (Hamilton, Ont.) as well as Paul Gartenburg (Toronto, Ont.) and Alex Ford (London, Ont.) from the Gaels and Aadam Tejpar (Vancouver, B.C.) of McGill form the second team all-stars.

The 2008-09 squash award winners will be honoured at a banquet following the OUA squash championships in London, Ont. this Saturday.

2008-09 OUA SQUASH MAJOR AWARD WINNERS

Women's Player of the Year – Stephanie Edmison (Western)
Women's Rookie of the Year – Kathleen Horman (Western)
Women's Coach of the Year – Doug Hamilton (McMaster)
Men's Player of the Year – Eric Dingle (Waterloo)
Men's Rookie of the Year – Ryan Herden (Western)
Men's Coach of the Year – Darryl White (McMaster)

WOMEN'S FIRST TEAM ALL-STARS
Stephanie Edmison (Western)
Carly Hong (McGill)
Heather Lamb (Western)
Karlene Headley-Cooper (Toronto)
Kristina Taylor (McMaster)
Elizabeth France (McGill)

WOMEN'S SECOND TEAM ALL-STARS
Sunayna Gupta (McMaster)
Megan Northey (Toronto)
Rachael Forgeron (Western)
Edith Chow (Toronto)
Hilary Dugan (Queen's)
Cami Marmoush (Toronto)

MEN'S FIRST TEAM ALL-STARS
Eric Dingle (Waterloo)
Chris Hanebury (Western)
Ben Marien (McGill)
Ahad Raza (Toronto)
Ahmed Shohayeb (McMaster)
Ryan Herden (Western)

MEN'S SECOND TEAM ALL-STARS
Iain Crozier (Western)
Strachan Jarvis (Western)
Paul Gartenburg (Queen's)
Aadam Tejpar (McGill)
Kimesh Chetty (Western)
Alex Ford (Queen's)

– OUA –

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