Anete Steinberga (Image: Brian Kanof)

EL PASO, TEXAS- UTEP forward Anete Steinberga has been selected to the five-member Conference USA All-Freshman team, as announced by the league office Sunday afternoon.

She is the fourth individual earn a spot on squad since the Miners became affiliated with C-USA and the sixth overall at the school. Dietra Caldwell (2008-09), Jareica Hughes (2006-07) and Timika Williams (2006-07) were bestowed distinction through C-USA while Charnette Phelps (2003-04) and Shalana Taylor (2004-05) picked up the honor when UTEP was a member of the Western Athletic Conference.

Steinberga sat out half of her initial year in the Sun City but impressed in her 15 games of action. She registered a team-high three double-doubles, which factored her 9.8 points per game (third on team) and 6.9 rebounds per game (first on team/eighth C-USA only stats). She was one of four Miners to make better than 45 percent from the floor, hitting 47.1 percent of her tries (second on team/18th C-USA only). For good measure the post player blocked seven shots and posted 1.4 assists per contest.

The Latvian native stormed onto the scene with 24 points off the bench-to tie for the most points by a Miner in their debut- against Houston on Jan. 10. She then started 13 of the next 14 contests, and is expected to be a fixture in the top five during the foreseeable future.

Steinberga and the Miners will be in action when they take on Rice in the opening-round of the 2010 Conference USA Championships (as hosted by the University of Tulsa) at 7:30 p.m. MT at the Donald W. Reynolds Center on Monday, March 8.