CENTER VALLEY, Pa. – Five different teams garnered the six men’s lacrosse yearly awards, with the announcing of the All-Patriot League Teams and major awards Monday morning by the League office.
Loyola Maryland sophomore Pat Spencer was tabbed as the Offensive Player of the Year for a second-straight year, while Navy’s Chris Fennell was named the Defensive Player of the Year for a third consecutive time. Army West Point’s Dan Grabher collected the honor of Faceoff Specialist of the Year in a close vote of the award’s second year, and Colgate’s Griffin Brown was named this year’s Rookie of the Year. Boston University landed two major awards, with Goalkeeper of the Year going to Christian Carson-Banister and head coach Ryan Polley being awarded the William Lawson Coach of the Year.
After becoming the first player in Patriot League history to earn Offensive Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year outright in his freshman campaign, Spencer continued his dominant play into the 2017 season and was unanimously named the Offensive Player of the Year. He finished the regular season as the Greyhounds’ leader with 25 goals, 46 assists, and 71 points. Nationally among NCAA Division I players, his average of 3.54 assists per game ranks as the top mark and his 5.46 points per game average lands him at No. 3. In League play, the Davidsonville, Md. native was second with 19 goals and led in both assists per game (3.75) and points per game (6.12), averaging 1.62 points per game more than the next player. Earlier this season on March 4 versus Holy Cross, Spencer broke a Patriot League single-game record, reaching a new assists mark with a career-best of nine in Loyola’s 16-9 win. The nine assists also rank as the most by an NCAA Division I player this season. Additionally, he registered a goal in the game to finish with 10 points, tying his career-high. For his performance, he earned the League’s weekly laurels and was also named the USILA/BSN Sports DI Offensive Player of the Week. The sophomore attack became the quickest player in Patriot League history to crack the League’s top 10 in career assists and is currently tied for ninth with 98. Spencer joins Army’s Tim Pearson, Bucknell’s Chris Cara, and Colgate’s Brandon Corp in receiving Offensive Player of the Year honors in consecutive seasons and is the first player to do so since Corp earned the award in 2007, 08, and 09.
Fennell, a unanimous first team selection, earns his third consecutive Defensive Player of the Year, becoming the first player in Patriot League history to receive the award three straight times. After the team started the season 2-6, Fennell helped the Midshipmen win four of their last five games, including their final game of the regular season -- a 10-6 victory over then-No. 6/8 Army which solidified a spot in the Patriot League Championship. He earned weekly laurels for his play, helping to keep the Black Knights scoreless in the first and fourth quarters. Fennell helped Navy hold eight of their 13 opponents to single digits in goals scored, including six Patriot League teams.
Carson-Banister was unanimously voted as the League’s Goalkeeper of the Year and is the first player from Boston U. to garner the year-end honor. The senior helped the Terriers capture the program’s first bid into the Patriot League Championship and earn the No. 3 seed. He ranks within the top 15 across NCAA DI players in the three goalie categories, checking in at No. 13 with an 8.25 goals-against average, No. 15 with 11.64 saves per game, and No. 4 with a 0.593 save percentage. Carson-Banister has also led the team to hold the nation’s 14th-best scoring defense, allowing an average of 8.50 goals a game. This season, BU held nine of their opponents to single digits, including their first seven opponents as the team began with a program-best 7-0 record. So far in his career, Carson-Banister has made a total of 601 saves, good for fifth-best in Patriot League history.
In the second year of its existence, the Faceoff Specialist of the Year was once again a tight race. Grabher receives this year’s award after winning 149-of-235 faceoffs taken for the Black Knights. The senior ranks fifth in the nation with a 0.637 faceoff winning percentage and also ranks seventh among NCAA DI players with 7.58 groundballs per game. He has helped Army rank fifth as a team with a 0.617 faceoff winning percentage and fourth with 34.23 groundballs per game. After playing in just three games as a freshman and taking zero faceoffs, Grabher now ranks 10th in Patriot League history for most faceoff wins in a career, surpassing former teammate Alex Daly. He’s proved to play a crucial role for the Cadets over the years, including this season as they upended then-No. 6 Syracuse, 14-13, on Feb. 25. He won 17-of-29 faceoffs, which included an 11-of-15 performance in the first half. In addition to his play the X, Grabher has scored six goals this season and notched four assists. He earned the League’s weekly honor of faceoff specialist three times this season.
Since the award started in 1991, Brown is the seventh freshman from Colgate to earn Rookie of the Year from the League and fourth in the last six years. As a midfielder, the freshman leads the team with 23 goals and stands third with 29 points. After not scoring a goal in the season opener against Marist, he tallied at least one goal in the remaining 12 games and recorded multiple goals in nine of the contests, including six straight games. Named the League’s Rookie of the Week on three different occasions, Brown tallied two hat tricks this season with the first of his career coming in the team’s 13-6 win over Hobart, where he tallied three goals and two assists.
After coming up just shy of making the Patriot League Championship, Polley led the Terriers, in their fourth year as a collegiate program, to their first bid into the League’s championship and earn the third seed for home field advantage in the quarterfinals. Under his direction over all four years, he has led the team to finish the regular season with its best record at 11-3 and guided the team to its best opening with a 7-0 run. Boston U. appeared as high as No. 15 in the Inside Lacrosse Media Poll and No. 16 in the USILA/Nike Coaches Poll this season.
The All-League teams are made of 15 student athletes on each the first team and the second team. Of the 30 players that made the team, 16 are seniors, six are juniors, and eight are sophomores. While Army West Point led the way with the most first team selections at four, Loyola and Boston U. tied for the most overall total of six student-athletes on the All-League teams. Army totaled five honorees, Bucknell and Navy each had four, and Lehigh had three. Colgate and Holy Cross rounded out the group with one apiece.
Two players, Loyola’s Brian Sherlock and Navy’s Brady Dove, were named All-League selections for a fourth time in their collegiate careers. Sherlock is the fourth player in League history to earn first team honors in all four years, while Dove is the first Navy player and first faceoff specialist to be named to the All-League team all four years.
The 2017 Patriot League Men's Lacrosse Championship starts Tuesday with two quarterfinal contests that will be streamed live on the Patriot League Network. No. 4 seed Navy hosts No. 5 Holy Cross in a 6 p.m. contest and No. 3 Boston University will host No. 6 Lehigh shortly after at 7 p.m. The winners advance to Friday's semifinal round at Ridley Athletic Complex in Baltimore, Md. Both semifinal games and the Patriot League Championship at 1 p.m. on Sunday, April 30 will be broadcast live on CBS Sports Network.
2017 Men’s Lacrosse All-Patriot League and Major Awards
Offensive Player of the Year – Pat Spencer, Loyola Maryland*
Defensive Player of the Year – Chris Fennell, Navy
Faceoff Specialist of the Year – Dan Grabher, Army West Point
Goalkeeper of the Year – Christian Carson-Banister, Boston University*
Rookie of the Year – Griffin Brown, Colgate
The William Lawson Coach of the Year – Ryan Polley, Boston University
First Team
Cole Johnson, Army West Point, Sr., A*
Cal Dearth, Boston University, Sr., A*
Will Sands, Bucknell, Jr., A*
Pat Spencer, Loyola Maryland, So., A*
David Symmes, Army West Point, Jr., M
Sean O’Brien, Bucknell, Jr., M
Brian Sherlock, Loyola Maryland, Sr., M
Greyson Torain, Navy, So., M*
Johnny Surdick, Army West Point, So., D
Dominick Calisto, Boston University, Sr., D
Craig Chick, Lehigh, So., D
Chris Fennell, Navy, Sr., D*
Dan Grabher, Army West Point, Sr., FO
Matt Rees, Navy, Sr., LSM
Christian Carson-Banister, Boston University, Sr., GK*
* Denotes unanimous selection
Second Team
Jack Wilson, Boston University, Jr., A
Andrew Pettit, Lehigh, So., A
Alex McGovern, Loyola Maryland, So., A
Brendan Homire, Boston University, So., M
Kevin Lux, Holy Cross, Sr., M
Romar Dennis, Loyola Maryland, Sr., M
Reaves Klipstein, Army West Point, Sr., D
Matt Gilray, Bucknell, Jr., D
Eddie Bouhall, Lehigh, So., D
Jack Carrigan, Loyola Maryland, Sr., D
Brady Dove, Navy, Sr., FO
Greg Wozniak, Boston University, Sr., LSM
Brian Begley, Loyola Maryland, Jr., SSDM
Christian Klipstein, Bucknell, So., GK
Brandon Burke, Colgate, Sr., GK
The Major Awards and All-League teams were voted on by the nine Patriot League head coaches who could not vote for their student-athletes and selves.