Ellesmere Port, England, native collects first team honors for second-straight year

RINDGE, N.H. (March 13, 2008) – Franklin Pierce University sophomore Johannah Leedham (Ellesmere Port, England/Cheshire Academy (Conn.)) has earned Daktronics All-Northeast Region first team honors, as selected by sports information directors from the region.

Leedham, the Northeast-10 Conference Player of the Year and named a State Farm Coaches’ All-America finalist earlier this week, earns All-Northeast Region honors for the second-straight season – the first in program history to earn Daktronics All-Region honors twice. She is now eligible for Daktronics All-America selection for the second-straight year after earning third team honors last winter to become the first All-American in program history.

Leedham leads the NE-10 with 22.2 points (4th nationally) and 3.4 steals (13th) per game this season, to go with 6.6 rebounds (12th NE-10) and 4.0 assists per game (5th). She is shooting 47.9-percent (226-for-472) from the field (9th), including 37.1% (49-132) from three-point range (7th), and converting 82.3% (144-175) of her free-throw attempts (6th). She has led the Ravens in scoring in 27 of their 29 games so far this season and also collected a team-best six double-doubles (16 career).

Leedham has reached double-figures in scoring in all 54 games of her collegiate career, scoring 20-plus points in 36 of those games (20 of 29 this season) and netted 30-plus points 12 times (four this winter). She is just the second player in program history to score 600 points in a season, joining former Raven Shelia Lindsay who did so three times, and her 645 points so far are the fourth-best total in program history. She earned NE-10 Player of the Week honors four times this winter, running her program-record career total to ten.

Leedham holds no less than 21 program records, including two set this season, at Franklin Pierce. She became the fastest player in program history to reach 1,000-career points, doing so in her 44th career game at Saint Rose on January 26. She poured in a program-record eight three-point field goals in a win over Southern New Hampshire on January 12. Leedham currently ranks third all-time at Franklin Pierce with 197 career steals and is 11th in program history with 1,223 career points.

The honor is the latest in a long list of accolades for Leedham in just two seasons at Franklin Pierce. She has earned ESPN The Magazine District I Academic All-America and NE-10 All-Academic first team honors, having achieved a cumulative grade point average of 3.29 at the conclusion of the fall semester. She is also just the fourth sophomore in NE-10 history to earn Player of the Year honors with her selection this season. In 2006-07, Leedham was named the NE-10 Freshman of the Year and earned All-Rookie team status.

Leedham has led Franklin Pierce (24-5, 18-4 NE-10), ranked 18th in this week’s USA Today/ESPN/WBCA Division II poll, to its first NCAA Division II Tournament appearance since 1999 (sixth overall). The Ravens, seeded third in the Northeast Regional, will face sixth-seeded Dominican College on Friday at Holy Family University in Philadelphia, Pa., at 3 p.m.