March 7, 2007

NEW HAVEN, Conn.--Three Yale players were honored with postseason All-Ivy recognition, the League office announced today. Freshman guard Melissa Colborne was named Rookie of the Year and selected to the All-Rookie Team, senior center Erica Davis was chosen First Team All-Ivy, and senior forward Chinenye Okafor earned Honorable Mention All-Ivy accolades.

Colborne was named Ivy Rookie of the Week six times during the season. The freshman guard from Calgary, Alberta, played in all 28 games and started the last 23. She finished second on the team and led all Ivy League rookies with 11.0 points per game, and placed seventh in the conference with a free throw percentage of .765 (117-of-153). Colborne tallied double-digit points 18 times, including a career-high 20 in a win at Lehigh on Jan. 3.

Colborne is the second player in Yale history to win Ivy League Rookie of the Year honors. Katy Grubbs won the award in 1995-96. The last Bulldog named to the All-Rookie Team was Colborne's teammate Sara McCollum following the 2004-05 season. With Davis' selection in 2003-04, Yale has now had a player named to the All-Rookie Team in three of the last four seasons.

Davis, widely regarded as the best post player in the conference, was unanimously selected to the first team by the League's head coaches after leading the circuit in rebounding (9.0), field goal percentage (.532), and blocks (2.25). She also finished second in offensive rebounds (3.54) and defensive rebounds (5.46), and placed third in scoring (15.6). The senior center from Columbus, N.J., was named Ivy Player of the Week on Jan. 2 after posting her 1,000th career point in the team's win over Quinnipiac on Dec. 31.

With 63 blocks, she had more total rejections than all Yale opponents combined and set the school record for blocks in a season. Davis also set the school record for blocks in a game with nine vs. Cornell on Feb. 10, and extended her school career record to 182. She scored 437 points this season to move into sixth place on Yale's single-season scoring list, and her 252 rebounds were the sixth most for a single season in school history. Davis is seventh on Yale's all-time scoring list (1,262) and fifth all-time in rebounding (670).

Davis takes home postseason honors from the League for the third time in her career. She was named Honorable Mention All-Ivy and to the All-Rookie team as a freshman, and earned a Second Team All-Ivy nod as a sophomore. Davis is the first Yale player to be named First Team All-Ivy since Grubbs in 1997-98.

Okafor earned Honorable Mention All-Ivy recognition for the second straight season. The senior forward from Rolla, Mo., finished third in the Ivy League in rebounding (7.9), and led the conference in offensive rebounds (3.79). Okafor was also sixth in the League in steals (1.92). The team captain was third on the team with 9.1 points per game. She finished her career seventh on Yale's all-time list with 143 career steals. Okafor broke her toe at Penn on Feb. 3, but only missed one game before returning to the lineup.

The Bulldogs finished the season 12-16 overall and 5-9 in Ivy League play. The sixth-place finish was Yale's highest since 2003-04, when the team also went 5-9. Yale was the only Ivy team to beat conference champion Harvard this season, and also posted home wins over MAAC champion Marist and WNIT-bound Dartmouth.

Report filed by Joe Clifford, Yale Sports Publicity