October 22, 2008 (HALIFAX, NS) - Atlantic University Sport is pleased to announce the 2008 women's rugby major award winners as selected by the conference's head coaches. For the second year in a row, the X-Women took home all three major honours.

StFX's Ghislaine Landry, the reigning CIS Player of the Year, has once again been named the Atlantic University Sport Most Valuable Player for the third year in a row. Ghislaine scored a record 22 tries this season, smashing her own conference mark of 19, which she established as a rookie in 2006. Her 112 points in 6 games this season are a new career-high for Landry and rank second only to the 135 points team-mate Courtnay Malcolm scored this year.

Her 2008 campaign saw her break her own conference records for tries (7) and points scored (35) in a single game and is already the all-time AUS career leader in both categories. In just three seasons with the X-Women, Landry has now scored a whopping 54 tries for 272 points. In university career, Ghislaine has now scored at least one try in all 18 regular season games in which she\\'s played, and in 15 of those games, she has recorded multiple tries.

In 2006 she was the first player to be honoured as both the Atlantic University Sport women's rugby Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year in the same season and has been named an all-Canadian in both 2006 and 2007.

"Ghislaine is an invaluable contributor to the team on both offence and defense and has unbelievable natural ability and talent," says head coach Mike Cavanagh.

Landry is a third year Human Kinetics student from Toronto, ON and will again be the conference's nominee for the CIS Player of the Year. She is the only Atlantic conference women's rugby player to have ever won this award.

Lisa Gauthier of the StFX X-Women has been chosen as the Atlantic conference Rookie of the Year.

Gauthier, a first year Arts student from St. Bernadin, ON, finished third in overall league scoring this season with 10 tries and 50 points. Lisa, who was also named a 2008 conference all-star, recorded an impressive five tries in a single game this season.

According to head coach Mike Cavanagh, "Lisa has quickly became one of the leaders on the team in only her first season and has unlimited potential. She was finished second in tackles on the team and was one of the key reasons why our team was not scored upon this season."

Gauthier's team-mate Ghislaine Landry is the last Atlantic conference player to be named CIS Rookie of the Year.

For the fifth time in his career, StFX X-Women's head coach Mike Cavanagh has been chosen by his peers as the Atlantic University Sport Coach of the Year. Cavanagh also won the award in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2007, and was also the 2001 CIS Coach of the Year.

This season, Cavanagh guided the ten-time defending conference champion X-Women to their fourth consecutive undefeated season (6-0-0) and seventh straight first place finish since 2002. His 2008 StFX squad set a number of individual records, however, as a team the X-Women established new single-season conference marks for points scored (416), tries scored (65), converts (40) and did not allow a single point against in any game this season.

Since 2002, Cavanagh's career record now stands at 37-1-2 in regular season play and 52-14-3 overall (reg. season and playoffs and CIS championships). He has never lost an Atlantic University Sport playoff game, sporting a perfect 7-0 record heading into this weekend. Coach Cavanagh is the only Atlantic conference head coach to have been named the CIS Coach of Year.

"Mike is one of the most gifted coaches I have ever met and his track record speaks for itself," said Leo MacPherson, StFX Director of Athletics & Recreational Services. "If I had to state two reasons for his success, it would be one, he cares about people, and two, he is committed to excellence."

The 2008 Subway Atlantic University Sport Women's Rugby Championship game is being held this Saturday, October 25th in Antigonish, NS at 2pm. The StFX X-Women will be hosting the Saint Mary's Huskies with the winner advancing to the CIS Women's Rugby Championship being hosted by the University of Lethbridge, October 30th to November 1st. Saturday\\'s championship game at StFX will be available via webcast. Visit www.goxgo.ca for details.

Courtesy John Keefe, Atlantic University Sport