BOSTON - Boston University’s Sarah Dalton (Cornwall, Vt./Taft School) was named America East Player of the Year, while Vermont’s Megan MacDonald (Wayland, Mass./Wayland) was selected Rookie of the Year at the conference’s annual women’s lacrosse awards banquet on Thursday evening. UVM’s Jennifer Johnson was tabbed the league’s Coach of the Year to round out the major individual honorees. All awards were determined in a vote by the league’s head coaches. Click here for the complete release in PDF format.
Dalton, a first-team all-conference selection in 2007, ranks second in America East with 3.78 goals per game totaling 53 scores in 14 games. A junior attack, Dalton has racked up 60 points on the season and ranks second in the league with 4.29 points per game. Dalton, who also ranks among league leaders with 2.64 draw controls per contest, is a nominee for the Tewaaraton Award, which recognizes the national player of the year.
MacDonald, a four-time America East Rookie of the Week honoree including each of the past three weeks, leads all newcomers with 36 points on 27 goals and nine assists. MacDonald, who set Vermont’s all-time freshman scoring record this season, ranks among league leaders in conference play with 20 points and 16 goals.
Johnson, who is in her fourth season at the helm of the Catamounts, led her squad to a program-best 5-1 mark in conference play, the No. 2 seed for the America East Championship and an 8-8 overall mark. Vermont’s second-place finish in the standings is its best finish in the 12 seasons America East has sponsored the sport and its 8-8 record is the program’s first non-losing mark since 1994.
Joining Dalton on the first team is Albany’s Kayla Best (Schenectady, N.Y./Guilderland) and Nikki Branchini (Guilderland, N.Y./Guilderland), Boston University’s Kelly Munroe (Westwood, Mass./Westwood), UMBC’s Ali Levendusky (Baldwin, Md./John Carroll), New Hampshire’s Allie Duclos (South Windsor, Conn./South Windsor), Michaela Hardy (Reading, Mass./Reading), Ashley Milley (Sudbury, Mass./Lincoln-Sudbury) and Sarah Von Bargen (East Setauket, N.Y./Ward Melville), Stony Brook’s Diana Caroleo (North Babylon, N.Y./North Babylon) and Kaitlin Leggio (Bay Shore, N.Y/Bay Shore) and Vermont’s Kristen Millar (Whitby, Ontario/Sinclair Secondary) and Jessa Merrill (Kennebunk, Maine/Kennebunk).
Along with MacDonald, the second team consists of Boston University’s Erica Baumgartner (Silver Spring, Md./Our Lady of Good Counsel), Molly Collins (Winchester, Mass./Winchester), Traci Landy (Seaford, N.Y./Seaford), Lauren Morton (Glenside, Pa./Gwynedd Mercy), Katie Nichols (Medford, N.J./Shawnee) and Rachel Klein (Forest Hill, Md./Roland Park), UMBC’s Maggie Chizmar (Bel Air, Md./Bel Air), New Hampshire’s Ashley Durepo (Concord, N.H./Concord), Shaunna Kaplan (Framingham, Mass./Framingham) and Beth Sabiston (Bay Shore, N.Y./Bay Shore), Stony Brook’s Jenna Spenard (Cicero, N.Y./Cicero-North Cicero) and Vermont’s Sara Buxton (Northfield, Ill./New Trier).
Joining Branchini, Nichols, Duclos and MacDonald on the all-rookie squad are Binghamton’s Ali Castiglie (Middle Island, N.Y./Longwood) and Lisa Illig (Corning, N.Y./Corning), UMBC’s Megan Linkous (Jarrettsville, Md./North Harford), New Hampshire’s Susie Piotrkowski (Franklin, Conn./Norwich Free Academy) and Stony Brook’s Melissa Cook (Bay Shore, N.Y./Bay Shore) and Samantha Djaha (East Islip, N.Y./East Islip).
The 12-member All-Academic team, which honors the conference’s top athletes with a 3.0 grade-point average or higher was highlighted by first-team selections Hardy, Von Bargen, Leggio and Millar and second-teamers Baumgartner, Landi, Durepo, Merrill and Spenard. Nominees Katie Neer (Baldwinsville, N.Y./C.W. Baker) and Rory Redmond (Baldwin, N.Y./Baldwin) from Albany, as well as Daryl Baughman (Rush, N.Y./Rush-Henrietta) from Vermont were also selected.
The All-Academic team is a product of the June 2005 Athletics Director meetings. Faculty representatives and athletics directors from each of the conference’s nine member institutions decided to honor some of the league’s top athletes that are also quality students.
The All-Academic Team has been selected based on the student-athlete’s academic and athletic accomplishments. Academic achievement for consideration requires student-athletes to have a minimum cumulative grade-point average of 3.00 entering the season. Athletically, student-athletes are required to be a nomination on the postseason awards ballot, which is determined by the league’s head coaches. Team size for team sports is based on the number of athletes that participate in a contest at one time (e.g., 12 on the field for women’s lacrosse). Freshmen are not eligible for the all-academic teams and grade-point averages are taken from the semester prior to the competing athletic season.
Twenty-one of the 26 all-conference sections will be in action at the 2008 America East Women’s Lacrosse Championship beginning on Friday, April 25 at Boston University’s Nickerson Field. For more information on America East women’s lacrosse, including links to live stats and video for all three games of the tournament, log on to the conference’s official website www.AmericaEast.com.