March 3, 2009
Risper, Wirth and Marsh
NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Vanderbilt seniors Christina Wirth and Jennifer Risper earned a pair of top individual honors Tuesday when Southeastern Conference officials announced the league’s 2009 postseason awards.
The league’s 12 coaches selected Wirth as the SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year, while naming Risper the Defensive Player of the Year. Junior Merideth Marsh joined Wirth and Risper on the 2009 All-SEC team.
A 6-1 forward from Mesa, Ariz., Wirth was one of five unanimous choices for first-team All-SEC, earning a spot on the eight-member team for the second consecutive season. Wirth becomes the seventh Commodore to earn first-team league accolades in consecutive seasons. Point guard Dee Davis, a 2007 VU graduate, was the last Commodore to be so honored.
Wirth averaged team-highs with 15.4 points in 32.6 minutes per game. The Seton Catholic product was among SEC leaders in the scoring (third), rebounding (20th), field-goal percentage (fourth), three-point shooting (fifth) and minutes played (fifth). Wirth was named the league’s Player of the Week on Feb. 16 and went on to score 20 or more points in six of her final eight regular season games.
Wirth’s athletic prowess is perfectly complemented by her excellence off the court. Wirth has carried a 3.6 GPA as a human and organizational development major at Vanderbilt’s Peabody College, and began her graduate studies at Vanderbilt’s School of Nursing with a 4.0 GPA this past fall. Wirth is one of 10 finalists nationally for the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award and was recently named an ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American as well as a member of the SEC’s Community Service Team.
The SEC began honoring a Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 2004, and Vanderbilt’s Hillary Hager won the award in its first year. Vanderbilt joins Arkansas as the only schools that have boasted the league’s Scholar-Athlete of the Year on more than one occasion.
Risper earned second-team All-SEC honors for the second straight season. The Moreno Valley, Calif., native becomes the first Commodore to earn SEC Defensive Player of the Year in the award’s sixth season. A 5-9 guard, Risper averaged 10 points and five rebounds during league play. Her team-high 68 steals helped Vanderbilt lead in the SEC in both steals and turnover margin. Risper also headlined the new-for-2009 SEC All-Defensive Team.
Marsh also was named second-team All-SEC after playing 487 minutes during VU’s 14 conference games — a team-high average of 34.8 minutes per game. The Louisville, Ky., product raised her scoring average by nearly three points in league play, netting 13.9 points per game against SEC foes. She led the league in three-point shooting accuracy while scoring in double-figures in 12 of 14 games. Marsh’s long-range accuracy is matched only by her efficiency at the free-throw line, where she is averaging 92.9 percent accuracy on the season and has made 21 consecutive charity tosses.
In other awards, regular season champion Auburn had the league’s Player of the Year and Coach of the Year in DeWanna Bonner and Nell Fortner, respectively. Arkansas’ Charity Ford was named the Sixth Woman of the Year, marking the first time since 2005 that a Commodore has not earned a share of the award. LSU’s LaSondra Barrett and Arkansas’ Ceira Ricketts shared Freshman of the Year honors. A complete list of 2009 SEC awards can be found below.
Vanderbilt holds the No. 2 seed in the upcoming SEC Tournament, which begins Thursday at Alltel Arena in North Little Rock, Ark. The Commodores have earned a bye in the opening round and are scheduled to play the winner of Georgia and Kentucky on Friday, March 6, at 2:30 p.m. CT.
2009 Southeastern Conference Postseason Awards Coach of the Year
Nell Fortner, Auburn
Player of the Year
DeWanna Bonner, Auburn
Scholar-Athlete of the Year
Christina Wirth, Vanderbilt
Co-Freshman of the Year
Ceira Ricketts, Arkansas and LaSondra Barrett, LSU
Defensive Player of the Year
Jennifer Risper, Vanderbilt
Sixth Woman of the Year
Charity Ford, Arkansas
All-SEC First Team
*DeWanna Bonner, Auburn
*Christina With, Vanderbilt
Whitney Boddie, Auburn
*Marshae Dotson, Florida
*Allison Hightower, LSU
*Sha Brooks, Florida
Bianca Thomas, Ole Miss
Alexis Rack, Mississippi State
All-SEC Second Team
Angie Bjorklund, Tennessee
Ashley Houts, Georgia
Ceira Ricketts, Arkansas
Angel Robinson, Georgia
Shekinna Stricklen, Tennessee
Eleia Roddy, Kentucky
Jennifer Risper, Vanderbilt
Merideth Marsh, Vanderbilt
Victoria Dunlap, Kentucky
All-Defensive Team
DeWanna Bonner, Auburn
Chanel Mokango, Mississippi State
Armelie Lomanu, Mississippi State
Allison Hightower, LSU
Jennifer Risper, Vanderbilt
All-Freshman Team
*Shekinna Stricklen, Tennessee
*Lakeisha Sutton, South Carolina
Lyndsay Harris, Arkansas
Trumae Lucas, Florida
*LaSondra Barrett, LSU
Ceira Ricketts, Arkansas
Glory Johnson, Tennessee
Ericka Russell, Alabama
* – unanimous selection