WASHINGTON, D.C. - Arguably the greatest college lacrosse player of all-time, University at Albany standout Lyle Thompson added to his resume Thursday evening becoming the sport's first back-to-back Tewaaraton Award winner. Thompson received the award at the Tewaaraton ceremony held at the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of the American Indian.
The Tewaaraton Award is given each year to the nation's top collegiate lacrosse player.
Thompson's Tewaraaton Award honor is the fourth all-time by an America East student-athlete. Lyle and his brother, Miles, were the second and third America East standouts to win the Tewaaraton last year as the tandem shared the honor. They joined Hofstra's Doug Shanahan, who won the first award in 2001.
America East is the only conference other than the ACC to have had multiple Tewaaraton Award winners.
A senior attackman, Thompson finished the 2015 season with the second highest scoring year in Division I history with 121 points on 52 goals and 69 assists, second only to his own 2014 total. He led all of Division I with 6.39 points per game and 3.63 assists per game and scored multiple points in all 19 of his games this season.
Thompson became the first America East player to win three Player of the Year awards and was named a USILA first-team All-American for the third time last week. Winner of the USILA's Enners Award as its Most Outstanding Player, he also set new Division I career scoring records with 400 points and 225 assists.
Thompson was joined as a finalist by University of Denver attackman Wesley Berg, Duke University midfielder Myles Jones, University of Notre Dame attackman Matt Kavanagh and Syracuse University attackman Kevin Rice.
The Tewaaraton Award annually honors the top male and top female college lacrosse player in the United States and has been given out each year since 2001.