Big South Announces 2017 Women's Lacrosse Annual Awards
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (www.BigSouthSports.com) – High Point senior Samantha Brown (Basking Ridge, N.J.) and teammate Christina Del Sesto (Arnold, Md.) have been voted the 2017 Big South Women’s Lacrosse Offensive Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year, respectively, by the Conference’s head coaches, it was announced this afternoon by the league office. Liberty midfielder Carly White (Marietta, Ga.) was tabbed Freshman of the Year, while HPU’s Lyndsey Boswell was voted Coach of the Year. In addition, the Big South’s sports information directors voted Campbell’s Mackenzie Koeller (Cary, N.C.) as the women’s lacrosse Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
Brown finished the regular-season as the Big South’s second-leading overall goal scorer with 48, and tied for the league lead with 3.00 per game. Her 66 points and 4.12 points per game are second in the conference. In Big South matches, Brown was second in the conference with 26 scores and 3.71 goals per game, as well as points (36) and points per contest (5.14). Named Big South Offensive Player of the Week on March 28, Brown posted 14 multi-goal games, including at least five goals in a game three times, and tallied multi-goal efforts in all seven league games. The first Panther to be voted Offensive Player of the Year since 2014 and the second overall, Brown received three first-place votes and 15 points in the voting, just ahead of Campbell’s Kayla Reilly and Winthrop’s Nicole Beatson, who both finished with two first-place votes and 12 points.
Del Sesto is the first Panther to be voted Big South Defensive Player of the Year since 2014, and anchors a High Point defense that held its Big South opponents to just 6.0 goals per match. Del Sesto recorded 34 ground balls, 18 draw controls and caused 25 turnovers -- including five in High Point’s win over Winthrop. In league action, she corralled 17 ground balls, 13 draw controls and 15 caused turnovers. Named the Big South Defensive Player of the Week on April 18, she caused at least four or more turnovers on three occasions. Del Sesto received three first-place votes and 12 points in the voting, ahead of Campbell’s Erin O’Hara (two first-place votes and nine points).
White is the second consecutive Lady Flame to be voted Big South Freshman of the Year. She concluded the regular-season with 21 goals, 15 assists and 36 points to rank third on the club. She also tallied 33 ground balls, 19 draw controls and 21 caused turnovers. White was the Big South Freshman of the Week honoree for April 11, and scored 17 goals in seven Big South contests (2.43 average) -- six of which were multi-goal efforts. Against league foes, she finished with 25 points, 17 ground balls, 11 draw controls and 13 caused turnovers. White finished with 10 points in the voting (two first-place votes) to edge out Longwood’s Molly Barkman (nine points, one first-place vote) and Radford’s Lindsey Carroll (nine points, two first-place votes) for the top freshman award.
Boswell led the Panthers to the outright Big South regular-season title with a perfect 7-0 record and No. 1 seed in the upcoming Big South Women’s Lacrosse Championship. She is now the first three-time winner of the Women’s Lacrosse Coach of the Year award, as well as the first coach to record an undefeated conference season twice. Boswell’s squad is 13-3 overall -- winners of 13 straight, and leads the Big South with a 9.75 goals against average. The Panthers held its league brethren to just 6.00 goals per game -- including two games with just one score. HPU also leads the conference in overall goals (15.50), assists (8.06), points (23.56) and caused turnovers (12.44). In Big South competition, the Panthers averaged a league-high 20.14 goals per game. High Point ranks in the top five nationally in four categories: caused turnovers per game (fourth), assists per game (fifth), points per game (fifth) and shots per game (fifth, 35.75).
The Big South also announced the 2017 All-Conference and All-Academic teams Thursday afternoon, which are listed below. The All-Conference team is voted by the head coaches and features two teams of three attackers, five midfielders, three defenders, one goalkeeper and three at-large selections, plus five honorable mention honorees regardless of position. The All-Academic Team consists of one student-athlete from each institution that meets the criteria and is nominated and selected by the league’s sports information directors.
2017 BIG SOUTH CONFERENCE WOMEN’S LACROSSE ALL-CONFERENCE TEAMS
FIRST-TEAM ALL-CONFERENCE
ATT Samantha Brown, Sr., High Point
ATT Nicole Beatson, Jr., Winthrop
ATT Kayla Reilly, Jr., Campbell
MF Katherine Judge, Jr., Winthrop
MF Melissa Placek, Soph., Campbell
MF Erica Perrotta, Jr., High Point
MF Carly White, Fr., Liberty
MF Molly Barkman, Fr., Longwood
D Christina Del Sesto, Sr., High Point
D Maura Talvacchia, Sr., Presbyterian College
D Paige Jenkins, Sr., Winthrop
GK Merredith Bechler, Sr., Campbell
AL Emma Rogers, MF, Soph., Radford
AL Samantha Herman, MF, Soph., High Point
AL Ashley Britton, MF, Fr., High Point
SECOND-TEAM ALL-CONFERENCE
ATT Kayla Foster, Soph., Liberty
ATT Brooke Stevens, Jr., High Point
ATT Kristen Shriver, Jr., Winthrop
MF Kaitlin Luccarelli, Fr., Longwood
MF Courtney Brown, Sr., Liberty
MF Stephanie Roberts, Soph., Longwood
MF Callie Bonnel, Soph., Radford
MF Abby Hanscom, Soph., Gardner-Webb
D Erin O’Hara, Sr., Campbell
D Victoria Tickle, Sr., Liberty
D Maddie Rollins, Sr., Longwood
GK Jill Rall, Fr., High Point
AL Megan Reilly, D, Jr., Campbell
AL Olivia Nostrant, D, Jr., High Point
AL Lindsey Carroll, ATT, Fr., Radford
HONORABLE MENTION ALL-CONFERENCE
ATT Amanda Steinmuller, Jr., Gardner-Webb
ATT Brianna McCaffrey, Soph., Liberty
GK Imani West, Jr., Longwood
D Lindsey McNamara, Jr., Liberty
ATT Mackenzie Koeller, Jr., Campbell
ALL-ACADEMIC TEAM
Mackenzie Koeller, Jr., ATT, Campbell
Emma Rose, Sr., ATT, Gardner-Webb
Samantha Brown, Sr., ATT, High Point
Courtney Brown, Sr., MF, Liberty
Riley Dolan, Jr., ATT, Longwood
Maura Talvacchia, Sr., D, Presbyterian College
Adrian Rius, Soph., ATT, Radford
Katherine Judge, Jr., MF, Winthrop
OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Samantha Brown, Sr., ATT, High Point
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Christina Del Sesto, Sr., D, High Point
FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR
Carly White, Fr., MF, Liberty
COACH OF THE YEAR
Lyndsey Boswell, High Point
SCHOLAR-ATHLETE OF THE YEAR
Mackenzie Koeller, Jr., ATT, Campbell