Four Golden Eagles Named To Women's Lacrosse All-Conference Second Team

It's further proof as to how far Marquette's men's lacrosse team has come in such a short time to look at the much slower development of Marquette's women's lacrosse team.  There's absolutely nothing wrong with a second year program progressing from 2-15 a year ago to 5-12 this season.  It's a step forward, and that's all you really want from the team.

One way you can see steps forward is seeing the respect of opposing coaches.  The Big East announced the women's lacrosse postseason awards yesterday and four Golden Eagles were named to the All-Big East Second Team by way of a vote of the conference's coaches.

Amanda Bochniak and Elisabeth Goslee were both amongst my predictions for the all-conference first team, so it's not surprising to see their names.  Disappointing, perhaps, since I thought both deserved higher honors given that the Big East creates 16 player all conference teams in a sport that fields 12 players per side.  I put Bochniak in for her passing (6th in the Big East in asssists/game, 9th in points/game) and Goslee made it in for her ability to create turnovers (ranked in the top 5 when I made my predictions, 1.23/game).

Joining Bochniak and Goslee on the second team are Hayley Baas and Sarah Priem.  Baas led Marquette in goals this year with 28 from the midfield and also ranks third in the league in caused turnovers with 1.47 per game.  Priem is one of just three goalies to earn all conference recognition, although the Big East does not honor a goalkeeper of the year.  Priem led Marquette in ground balls, which ranked her third in the league.  I could tell you more about how good Priem was relative to her peers, but the Big East refuses to filter women's lacrosse goalie stats, which means MU's Jennifer Zandlo and her 11 minutes of action this season leads the league with a save percentage of .600.  What I can tell you is that Priem was named the Big East's Defensive Player of the Week for the final week of the regular season, so that's pretty great.

Onwards to the rest of the league awards!

BIG EAST Coach of the Year
Kellie Young, Louisville*

BIG EAST Attack Player of the Year
Nikki Boltja, Senior, Louisville*

BIG EAST Midfielder of the Year
Kaylin Morissette, Sophomore, Louisville

BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year
Monica Negron, Senior, Louisville

Both Young and Boltja were unanimous selections for their awards.  I disagreed on Negron as DPOY, instead selecting Connecticut's Lauren Kahn for statistical purposes.  Here's the Big East's explanation for Negron's award:

Negron, who was tabbed the BIG EAST Preseason Defensive Player of the Year, has helped the Cardinals to league-best averages for goals against (8.07) and caused turnovers (9.44). She has totaled 17 CT and 28 GB so far this season, having started all 16 games for Louisville. The senior also has 42 draw controls to her credit. Negron and the Cardinal D have limited opponents to just 16.8 shots per game.

For what it's worth, Marquette has three players with at least 17 caused turnovers and Kayce Haverstick has 16.  The Big East only lists 5 players as leaders in ground balls per game, and Negron trails fifth place 1.94 to 1.75, and Kahn is the leader in that category.  Negron isn't even the best draw control player on her own team, as that goes to Morissette, and Negron is tied with Kahn with 2.62 draws per game.

So yeah, I don't get that one.

All-BIG EAST First Team
*Nikki Boltja, Louisville, Sr., A
*Faye Brust, Louisville, Jr., A
Cortnee Daley, Louisville, So., M
*Adrianne Devine, Georgetown, Jr., D
*Kelyn Freedman, Georgetown, Sr., M
Chelsea Intrabartola, Rutgers, Sr., D
Lauren Kahn, Connecticut, Sr., M
Lauren Kwasnowski, Connecticut, So., D
Steph McNamara, Louisville, Fr., D
*Kaylin Morissette, Louisville, M
Shannon Nee, Connecticut, GK
*Monica Negron, Louisville, Sr., D
Kacey Pippitt, Connecticut, Sr., A
Jamie Redding, Louisville, Sr., A
Lauren Sbrilli, Rutgers, R-Jr., M
Caroline Tarzian, Georgetown, Jr., A

That's 10 of 16 right from my predictions, and considering that I was completely blindly swinging on defensive players and only had three instead of the five that landed here, I'm thinking that's a pretty good job by me.  Whenever anyone wants to explain to me how UConn's Katherine Finkelston, the #3 goal scorer in the conference, didn't make it on this list, I'll be ready to listen.

All-BIG EAST Second Team^
Hayley Baas, Marquette, So., M
Amanda Bochniak, Marquette, Fr., A
Maggie Brown, Georgetown, Sr., D
Megan Clements, Rutgers, Sr., A
Ali Crofts, Connecticut, So., M
Corinne Etchison, Georgetown, So., A
Kate Finkleston, Connecticut, So., A
Hannah Franklin, Georgetown, Sr., M
Elizabeth Goslee, Marquette, So., D
Leslee Hefner, Louisville, Sr., D
Chelsey Henderson, Villanova, So., M
Jaqi Kakalecik, Temple, R-So., GK
Jess Mucci, Villanova, Jr., A
Maddie McTigue, Temple, So., D
Sarah Priem, Marquette, GK
Jaymie Tabor, Temple, Sr., A
Nicole Tiernan, Temple, So., M

And there's the six players I missed on for the First Team: Bochniak, Finkelston, Goslee, Henderson, Mucci, and Tabor.  My list was heavily tilted towards scorers since 1) the Defensive Player of the Week awards were tilted towards goaltenders and 2) the Weekly Honor Roll slots were tilted towards scorers.  I didn't have much to go on to try to determine non-goalie defensive players, so I can't feel bad about missing so many defenders on the first team.