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Hannah Tvrdy, Grace Colaivalu earn year-end accolades from MW

Christian Hedrick

March 5, 2018

On the eve of their 2017-18 Mountain West Women’s Basketball Championship debut, senior guard Hannah Tvrdy and freshman guard Grace Colaivalu of the Colorado State women’s basketball team each earned annual accolades from the Mountain West Conference.

Player holds three fingers in the air — Redshirt freshman Grace Colaivalu (23) backpedals with redshirt senior Hannah Tvrdy after making a 3-pointer against New Mexico. The Rams beat the Lobos in overtime with a score of 74-71 on Jan 27. (Joshua Contreras | Collegian)

The conference selected Tvrdy to both the All-Mountain West team and the Mountain West All-Defensive team, while Colaivalu received a spot on the Mountain West All-Freshman team.

A native of Seward, Nebraska, Tvrdy joins Ellen Nystrom and Meghan Heimstra as the only Rams in program history to make the All-Defensive team. The senior’s 6.4 rebounds per game led the Rams and helped CSU to a league-leading 56.2 opponents’ points per game average in conference play. Tvrdy’s 5.3 defensive rebounds per game rank fourth among all players in the Mountain West.

Along with Tvrdy’s award-winning defense, the senior guard led the Rams with 13.2 points per game in conference play. Tvrdy was the lone Ram to crack the 20-point threshold three times, highlighted by a 28-point double-double versus San Diego State on Jan. 27. Tvrdy followed up her career night against the Aztecs by knocking down a game-winning triple in overtime against New Mexico, earning her Mountain West Offensive Player of the Week on Jan. 29.

Colaivalu joins Tvrdy on the year-end accolade list as a member of the All-Freshman team. Colaivalu is the first Ram to earn All-Freshman honors since Ellen Nystrom and Elin Gustavsson in 2013-14. The Sacramento, California native burst onto the conference radar with 26 points in her Mountain West debut versus Boise State. The freshman topped that performance one week later with a career-high 29 points against San Diego State, featuring the game-winning layup as time expired. Colaivalu finished her first season in green and gold leading the team with a .478 field goal percentage. Her eight points per game average ranks third.

Tvrdy and Colaivalu open the 2017-18 Mountain West Championship with a first-round matchup against Fresno State Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. MT in Las Vegas.

Collegian sports reporter Christian Hedrick can be reached at sports@collegian.com or on Twitter @ChristianHCSU.

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