May 12, 2010

Women's Lacrosse All-Conference Teams Released

Williams’ Schreiber, Weinstein Named Player, Rookie of the Year

HADLEY, Mass. – Williams junior goalkeeper Julia Schreiber (Cockeysville, Md.) has been selected by the conference coaches as the 2010 NESCAC Player of the Year. The first netminder to ever earn the conference’s top honor, Schreiber backboned the Ephs past the top three teams in the 2010 NESCAC Women’s Lacrosse Championship en route to their first league title. She joins former Eph Cara Shortsleeve (2000) as the only players from Williams to ever be named NESCAC Player of the Year.

In the midst of a stellar season with the Ephs, Schreiber has played nearly every minute of every game and currently leads the league in save percentage, boasting a career-best .531 save rate to go along with an 8.59 goals against average (4th NESCAC) and a 12-6 overall record. During the NESCAC Women’s Lacrosse Championship, Schreiber averaged nearly 13 saves per game and posted a .594 save percentage. She saved her best performances over the three rounds of the tournament for the second half, stopping .759 percent of the shots she faced in the final 30 minutes and allowing only seven goals (22 saves). Against two-time defending champion Colby on Sunday for the 2010 title, Schreiber and the Williams defense held the Mules scoreless over the final 31:51 of the contest. In addition to being named Player of the Year, Schreiber garnered All-NESCAC First Team honors for the second year in a row.

Joining Schreiber from Williams in earning individual conference honors was first year midfielder Samantha Weinstein (Marblehead, Mass.), as she came away with NESCAC Rookie of the Year. The Ephs’ top scorer this season, Weinstein is tied for first among all conference players in goals with 49 tallies through 18 games this season. She has also accumulated 23 ground balls, 13 draw controls, and six caused turnovers, and is 15-for-26 on free position attempts heading into this week’s NCAA Tournament action.

The four individuals that comprise the attack portion of the First Team have previously all received All-Conference accolades in some form during their careers, two of whom have formerly been recognized as NESCAC Rookie of the Year. Juniors Rachel Romanowsky (Hampstead, N.H.) and Caitlin Irvine (Westwood, Mass.) of Trinity both added a third All-NESCAC honor to their spectacular Bantam careers. Romanowsky, the 2008 Rookie of the Year and a First Team member in 2009, scored 25 goals and added 17 assists through 11 games before suffering a late-season injury that limited her play. Irvine, who was chosen as a member of the Second Team in 2008 and again in 2009, has a team-best 36 goals, 46 points, and 25 draw controls while starting all 16 games so far this season. Joining the Trinity tandem at attack were seniors Amy Campbell (North Andover, Mass.) of Colby and Dana Heritage (Cheshire, Conn.) from Middlebury. One of four First Team members returning from last year, Campbell has been at the forefront of the Mules’ offense this season with a career-high 42 goals (3rd NESCAC) and 15 assists for 57 points. Campbell became the 11th player in program history to record 100 goals on March 20 against Tufts and heads into NCAA action with 128. Heritage, who earned Rookie of the Year and Second Team honors in 2007, capped her career with a personal-best 38 goals this spring, accumulating 47 points through 15 games. She averaged over 30 goals per season for the Panthers during her tenure and finished with 182 career points (135-47-182).

All four midfielders on the All-NESCAC First Team were sophomores, as second-year players outnumbered all other classes on this year’s squad. Moving up from the 2009 Second Team was Trinity’s Liz Bruno (Andover, Mass.). Bruno currently leads the conference in ground balls and caused turnovers with 47 apiece while also chipping in 11 goals and an assist. First time All-Conference honorees at midfield included Bowdoin’s Katie Stewart (Chevy Chase, Md.), Tufts’ Stephanie Perez (East Providence, R.I.), and Bates’ Jenna Dannis (Milford, N.H.). Stewart pitched in all over the field for the Polar Bears as she paced her team in scoring with 44 points on 35 goals and nine assists and added 26 ground balls, 28 draw controls, and 33 caused turnovers. Perez was third in the league in draw controls with 50 to go along with 40 ground balls and 16 caused turnovers. She also tallied 18 goals and helped out on six others. Dannis, who started all 15 games this season, was second for the Bobcats in scoring, recording 25 goals and four assists, and had a conference-best 51 draw controls in addition to scooping 34 grounders and caused 24 turnovers.

Tufts senior defender Alyssa Kopp (Hollis, N.H.) was named to the First Team for the second-straight year as she recorded 39 ground balls, 39 draw controls, and 26 caused turnovers for the Jumbos. Fellow senior Caroline Duke (Englewood, Colo.) of Colby claimed First Team recognition at defense after being a member of the Second Team in each of the last two seasons. Duke’s team-leading 39 caused turnovers rank second among league players as the Mules’ are atop the conference in caused turnovers with an average of 11.47 per game. Rounding out the 2010 All-NESCAC First Team was sophomore Meredith LaRose (Cranford, N.J.) from Amherst. LaRose was a standout on a Jeffs’ defense that ranked second in the conference with a 7.33 goals against average, contributing 37 ground balls, 39 caused turnovers, and 11 draw controls.

For the second time in her career, Trinity’s Kate Livesay was the choice among her peers for NESCAC Coach of the Year. A 2003 graduate of Middlebury and a former First Team All-NESCAC member on defense, Livesay has guided the Bantams to a program-record 13 wins, the top seed in the NESCAC Women’s Lacrosse Championship for the first time ever, and a trip to the 2010 NCAA Tournament. Livesay previously earned the honor in 2007.