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Cash named YSU MVP
Lordstown native 8th player to win again
Staff Report
Sarah Cash was named the Coach Ed DiGregorio Most Valuable Player for the 2018-19 Youngstown State women’s basketball season at the team’s annual postseason banquet on Friday evening at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Social Hall.
It was the second time in her career that Cash was named the team MVP, and it came three years after she earned the award as a true sophomore in 2016. Now as a fifth-year senior, she is the eighth player to be the MVP multiple times.
Also at the banquet, Melinda Trimmer was named the Most Improved Player, McKenah Peters was tabbed the Defensive Player of the Year, Mary Dunn was the Sixth Player of the Year, and Alison Smolinski and Chelsea Olson both received Belleria Struthers Impact Player of the Year awards.
Cash finished her career holding YSU career marks for games played (135) and field-goal percentage (.570). The two-time Second-Team All-Horizon League selection and two-time team MVP also finished her career ranking 11th in points, ninth in field goals made, sixth in free throws made, 13th in rebounds, fifth in blocks and 13th in games started.
Trimmer set a new school record for best assist-to-turnover ratio in a season with a mark of 2.23 in 2018-19. Trimmer led the Horizon League in assist-to-turnover ratio, and she was third in the conference with 4.0 assists per game. She scored in double figures in the final nine games of her career. As a senior, she scored 46 more points and had 51 more assists than she did in her first three seasons combined.
Peters was a spark plug and provided game-changing energy on the defensive end during the season as she routinely defended the opposing team’s top-scoring guard. On the offensive end, Peters averaged a career-high 8.8 points per game while also contributing 5.4 rebounds per contest. She ranked third on the squad with 43 3-pointers.
Dunn was also named the Sixth Player of the Year in the Horizon League, and she was a member of the All-Horizon League First Team. The junior forward led the Penguins in Horizon League play with 14.3 points per game and a .618 shooting percentage. In addition to her conference accolades, Dunn was named Google Cloud Third-Team Academic All-American.
Smolinski had a season full of broken records and milestones, and she made 48 more 3-pointers than any other player in the Horizon League. She ended her career holding every program record for 3-point volume — 3s in a game (9), season (109) and career (262) as well as consecutive games with a 3 (27). She added the Horizon League single-season 3-pointers record as well, and she also reached the 1,000th-point plateau during her senior season.
Olson emerged as one of the most well-rounded players in the country. She was the only underclassman in Division I to average at least 10 points, seven rebounds and 4.5 assists, and she was one of five players to reach those averages regardless of class. Olson led the Horizon League in assists and ranked among the top eight in the conference in nine different categories.