WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University women's hockey team may need to rent a U-Haul to transport all of its post-season hardware back to campus.
 
The Cardinals — who reached the MIAC Playoff title game for the first time since 2001-02, falling to defending national champion Gustavus 2-1 — boasted five players, who were awarded eight conference honors, when the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference unveiled its post-season award-winners Tuesday afternoon.
 
Sophia Paduano (Westby, Wis.) led the way for the Cardinals, being named MIAC Rookie of the Year, while also earning All-MIAC accolades. Fellow freshmen Reese Heitzman (Hermantown, Minn.) and Celia Midtbo (Minneapolis, Minn.) joined Paduano on the All-MIAC team, with Allie Urlaub (Burnsville, Minn.) and Celeste Rimstad (Richfield, Minn.) collecting honorable-mention All-MIAC honors.
 
Paduano enjoyed a stellar first season in a Cardinal uniform, scoring 10 goals — including three game-winning tallies — and adding 10 assists for 20 points in 18 MIAC contests. The sharp-shooting freshman tacked on five goals and four assists in nonconference play, giving Paduano 15 goals and 14 assists for 29 points in SMU's 27 games. Paduano, who boasted a season-high six-game goal-scoring streak this season, scored a goal in 11 of the team's last 16 games.
 
Like Paduano, Heitzman and Midtbo also enjoyed breakout inaugural seasons with the Cardinals — both sharing the team lead in conference goals with Paduano, while Midtbo chipped in eight assists for 18 points and Heitzman dished out three helpers to finish with 13 MIAC points.
 
 Overall, Heitzman led the team with 17 goals in 27 games, while also adding nine assists to finish second to Paduano with 26 points. She netted a goal in 13 of the team's 27 contests — including her first collegiate hat trick against Lake Forest on Oct. 28 — and her 17 goals were the most since Emily Kearns scored 22 in 2003-04.
 
Midtbo, meanwhile, closed out the season with 11 goals and 10 assists for 21 points in 25 games, while leading the team with seven power play goals. The crafty defenseman recorded her first collegiate two-goal and three-point game against Bethel on Jan. 27.
 
Urlaub, the "wily veteran" of the five Cardinal honorees as a junior, made her third season as a Cardinal her best yet, posting three goals and 10 assists for 13 points in 18 conference contests, while ending the year as the team's assist leader with 16 as part of a 26-game, 7-goal, 16-assist, 23-point performance.
 
And while that quartet was making life miserable for opposing goaltenders, Rimstad was doing the same to opposing forwards at the other end. In her first year as the everyday starter, Rimstad put up impressive numbers, compiling a 1.70 goals-against-average and .931 save percentage in playing every minute of SMU's 18 conference games, while closing out her sophomore campaign with a 1.44 GAA and .938 save percentage in 26 appearances.
 
Urlaub and Rimstad were also named to the MIAC All-Playoff Team, with Urlaub scoring one of SMU's two goals in SMU's 2-1 semifinal win over Augsburg, while Rimstad kicked out 47 of the 50 shots she faced in the Cardinals' two post-season games.
 
Along with Midtbo's Rookie of the Year honor and All-MIAC and honorable-mention All-MIAC selections, the conference office also announced that Hailey Holland of Gustavus was named Offensive Player of the Year, while Bethel's Anna Hanson and Hamline's Elizabeth Valley were tabbed Co-Defensive Player of the Year. Augsburg's Sydney Rydel earned the MIAC's Sheila Brown Award and Gustavus's Mike Carroll was named MIAC Coach of the Year.