University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey senior defenseman Catherine Daoust has been named the 2017-18 Western Collegiate Hockey Association's Outstanding Student-Athlete of the Year, the league announced Wednesday.

The native of IIe Bizard, Quebec owns a 4.0 cumulative GPA while majoring in mechanical engineering at UMD.  This past season, Daoust posted a career-best 13 points on three goals and 10 assists in 35 games, and finishes her career with nine goals and 28 assists for 37 points in 140 games as a Bulldog.  She was also named a WCHA Scholar Athlete for the third time in her tenure at UMD, as well as a WCHA All-Academic Team member for a third-straight year.

The 2017-18 assistant captain plans to attend a master's program in Aerospace Engineering once she graduates from UMD.  In addition to suiting up for the Bulldogs for four years, Daoust is a member of Tau Beta Pi, the National Engineering Honor Society and has made the Dean's list every semester at UMD.

"Catherine is the perfect example of what it truly means to be a student-athlete," says UMD head coach Maura Crowell of her senior blueliner. "She embodies both parts of the moniker that is so often used, we sometimes forget how difficult it is to truly be one."

Daoust follows Bulldog All-American Lara Stalder, who won the league's academic award one season ago.  They are the first back-to-back UMD winners since the Bulldogs won the award three-straight years in a row -- Caroline Ouellette won it in 2004-05, and then was followed by Riitta Schaublin in both 2005-06 and 2006-07.

A list of UMD's all-time WCHA's Outstanding Student Athletes --

2017-18    Catherine Daoust
2016-17    Lara Stalder
2010-11    Jocelyne Larocque
2006-07    Riitta Schaublin
2005-06    Riitta Schaublin
2004-05    Caroline Ouellette