BURLINGTON, Vt. – The Vermont Catamounts, who claimed the America East regular-season crown with a victory over Maine last week, took top honors Wednesday during the league’s awards luncheon held at the Radisson Hotel.

Vermont senior forward Karalyn Church was selected the America East Player of the Year, teammate Morgan Hall captured rookie of the year honors and Catamounts coach Keith Cieplicki was recognized as the coach of the year. It marks only the second time in league history that a team had swept the three major prizes.

The balloting is conducted by the head coaches at the l0 conference schools.

UMaine placed only two players on the All-America East roster. Senior center Jamie Cassidy, the 1999 player of the year, was a first-team choice, while classmate Amy Vachon of Augusta, a point guard, was afforded second-team recognition for the second year in a row.

Joining Cassidy and Church on the All-America East’s fab five were three-time honoree Tesha Tinsley of Northeastern, two-time pick Orsi Farkas of New Hampshire and Delaware’s Cindy Johnson, who made the second team a year ago.

The second team consists of Alison Dixon of Boston University, Danielle Leyfert of Delaware, Northeastern’s Lani Lawrence, Shniece Perry of Towson and Vachon.

Third-team members are Maureen Michaels and Mikki Miller of Drexel, Christina Rible of Delaware, Hartford’s Janeka Lopp and Hall.

The All-Rookie unit includes Hall and Cressman, Jen Brickey of Hofstra, Garrette Glinton of Northeastern and Dorcas Miller of Hartford.

Cassidy had appeared to be the frontrunner for the player of the year award, despite the Bears’ inconsistent play this season. The 6-foot-4 center from Methuen, Mass., led America East and ranks seventh in the nation with a 21.2-point scoring average despite being constantly double- and triple-teamed.

Cassidy also set a conference career record with 222 blocked shots, leads the league in free throw percentage (.820) and blocks (2.6) and is third in field goal percentage at .519 and fourth in rebounds at 9.0 per game.

However, the coaches favored Church, who was named the player of the year for the second time in three seasons after leading Vermont to the regular-season title. The 6-footer leads the nation with a .648 field goal percentage and ranks No. 2 in America East in scoring (20.2 ppg). She is sixth in the league in steals (2.1) and blocks (0.93).

Church also was blessed with an outstanding complementary cast of 3-point shooters, including rookies Cressman and Hall, along with Christie Lauzon, who pulled opposing defenses out of the middle to give her room to maneuver.

Hall, a 6-foot guard from Hanover, N.H., averaged 14.0 points and 5.3 rebounds for the Catamounts to take the rookie award.

Cieplicki, in his third season, has directed the Catamounts to a 22-5 overall record this season. Vermont had been picked to finish fourth in the preseason coaches poll.