UTICA, NY - After one of its most successful seasons of recent memory, the Utica College women's basketball team has not stopped filling out its list of awards just yet. In fact, the team's latest honor could be its most prestigious yet for the 2019-20 campaign. Senior guard Nicolette Conkin (Los Altos, CA/Homestead) has been named to the D3hoops.com East All-Region First Team. The announcement was made on Tuesday by the national website based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Conkin becomes Utica's first player to earn a prestigious All-Region selection from D3hoops since 2011. That year, All-American Jessica Berry was selected as the region's Player of the Year. Berry was a four time all-region honoree including two first team selections. As a first team All-Region pick, Conkin now stands in position to potentially be named an All-American in the coming weeks.

For the 2019-20 campaign, Conkin was the Empire 8 Conference Player of the Year, the Empire 8 Defensive Player of the Year, and a First Team Empire 8 All-Conference selection after leading UC to a 15-11 overall record.

Conkin elevated her game drastically over the past four seasons as she transformed from a serviceable role player as a freshman, into one of the nation's elite point guards as a senior.  The native Californian was a top notch distributor of the basketball as she ranked fourth in the nation with 177 assists this season, and also averaged 6.9 assists per game to rank fourth. She led the Empire 8 Conference in assists, and was second in the conference in assist to turnover ratio. That drove Utica to lead the Empire 8 in scoring offense.

Conkin balanced her ability to facilitate with a strong scoring acumen as well. She was third in the Empire 8 in points per game at 18.1. The fleet-footed and durable guard led the conference in minutes played per game. Conkin had three double-doubles this season from the guard position, and did so in each game where she had ten or more assists. Her season and career high of 37 points came in the team's appearance in the Empire 8 Conference semifinals against Sage. She ranked fourth in the E8 in foul shooting at 82 percent, and was fifth in the Empire 8 in three point field goal percentage.

Defensively, she was 22nd in the nation in steals per game at 3.23 per contest.

Conkin was also a one time E8 Player of the Week this season, and was a promising finalist for the opportunity to appear in the WBCA Division III All-Star game.

D3hoops.com All-American honors will be announced at a later date.