Springfield, Mass. - Senior Chelsea Abreu capped a decorated senior season with Adelphi University women's lacrosse with the Northeast-10 Conference's highest honor.

The midfielder from Huntington, N.Y. was revealed as the 2018-19 NE10 Woman of the Year on Monday evening.

She is the second consecutive Adelphi female athlete to be named the league's Woman of the Year, following softball standout Brenna Martini ('18). Abreu received her award at the league's annual end-of-year banquet, held at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield.

Abreu recently led the Panthers to an NCAA-record ninth national title, and second of her tenure in Brown and Gold. She scored 10 of her 33 season goals during the four rounds of the NCAA tournament en route to being named to the All-Championship team. 

"I've been blessed for the past four years to have Chelsea by my side," said head coach Pat McCabe. "When you bring a young person to campus, there's a mixture of hope and expectation...all my hopes were met with amazing results, and all my expectations were exceeded.

"All the work she did for us on the field, in the classroom and in the community was more of a cultural transformation for us than anything. There are players that are important to teams...and then there are people that have a transformational impact on the program.

"They make their mark on what they're doing, and they're people that you will look back upon as laying the foundation for the way you want things to be. Chelsea has been that for Adelphi women's lacrosse."

The native of Huntington, N.Y. was an All-Conference and IWLCA All-Region selection in her senior season, also boasted a 3.98 GPA over her undergraduate career in business management.

In the community, Abreu was a two-year member of Adelphi's student-athlete advisory committee's (SAAC) executive board, and helped coordinate the team's efforts with Friends of Jaclyn Foundation, which matched the program with five-year-old Alexia "Lexi" Corvino, who suffers from a rare mitochondrial disease. 

"Over the past four years, I had the privilege of playing lacrosse at the highest level in Division II," Abreu said in her acceptance speech. "The Northeast-10 provided my fellow student-athletes and me with the necessary tools to be well-rounded individuals.

"I have no doubt that our character will remain undefeated as we pursue the next steps in our life's journey."

The NE10's Man and Woman of the Year awards honor student-athletes for their excellence in competition, in the classroom, and in community service. Abreu will be forwarded to the NCAA for their National Woman of the Year award, which will be announced in October.

Each of the league's 15 member institutions nominated a student-athlete for each of these awards and the 30 total nominations were narrowed down to three finalists for each award, both of which were selected by the organization's Senior Woman Administrator (SWA) Council.

Alexander Demeule of Stonehill College's cross country and track and field programs was named the league's Man of the Year. 

Abreu was selected from three finalists which also included fellow lacrosse student-athlete Bryanna Fazio, named the NE10 Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year, and Pace University field hockey athlete Paige Predmore.

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About Adelphi Athletics
A regionally and nationally competitive NCAA Division II institution located in Garden City, N.Y., Adelphi University has been a proud member of the Northeast-10 Conference since 2009.

Winners of 17 NCAA Division II National Championships and four NE10 Presidents' Cups, Panther athletes have excelled at the conference, regional and national level, both on the field of play and in the classroom. In turn, the Adelphi athletic department is committed to fostering an environment of diversity, inclusion, equity and success where its student-athletes can thrive both on campus and off.

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