BOSTON – Vermont women's ice hockey standout and 2023 J. Edward Donnelly Award winner Sini Karjalainen has been named the America East Woman of the Year, as announced by the conference at its annual awards banquet on Wednesday night.
 
Karjalainen is just the second Catamount to earn the award and the first ice hockey student-athlete to be recognized. She will now serve as the America East's nominee for the NCAA Woman of the Year, which will be announced this fall. She is eligible for this award as her primary sport conference, the Hockey East, does not accept nominations for a Hockey East Woman of the Year or the NCAA Woman of the Year award.
 
This award recognizes the conference's senior female student-athlete who has best distinguished herself throughout her collegiate career in the areas of academic achievement, athletic excellence, service and leadership.
 
Karjalainen has led the Catamounts to new heights during her time in Burlington. The stalwart on the blue line led Vermont to matching 22-11-3 records in each of the past two seasons, which are the two winningest seasons in program history. They reached the Hockey East Semifinals each year and this season finished ranked 11th in the nation, its highest year-end ranking ever.
 
Individually, the senior co-captain was honored as the Hockey East Defender of the Year and earned First-Team All-Hockey East honors after totaling 27 points on 24 assists and three goals. She concluded her career with 11 goals and 65 assists.
 In addition to her play at UVM, Karjalainen is a member of the Finnish national team. She helped her home country to a bronze medal at the 2022 Olympics and a fifth place finish at the 2023 World Championships.
 
Academically, Karjalainen graduated with a 3.84 GPA as a Dietetics, Nutrition and Food Sciences major. In the summer of 2021, she completed a practicum for her major where she worked with a sports dietician to develop nutrition education materials for high school athletes in her native Finland.

America East began honoring a Woman of the Year in 2006. In 2009 Kristen Millar (women's lacrosse) also earned the honor for Vermont.