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All-Ivy Women's Lacrosse (2008)
Created: 5/8/2008 9:48:11 PM
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The 2008 season was a banner season for Ivy League Women's Lacrosse. The Penn Quakers retained the outright title won in 2007 and return to the NCAA Division I Championships as the No. 2 seed in the tournament. The Quakers will bring a 14-1 record and a win over the No. 1 seed, Northwestern, into the post-season. Penn is the only school to defeat the Wildcats in 36 previous attempts. Joining the Quakers in the field of 16 is Princeton. The Tigers earned the 8th seed and will open up against Colgate. Not surprisingly, both schools have the most athletes named to the All-Ivy first and second teams this year. Karin Brower's Quakers lead the group with six selections in total and five on the first-team. The Princeton Tigers, led by Chris Sailer, received five total selections, including two on the first-team.
In the competition for the top individual honors, Penn's stalwart in the net Sarah Waxman (Washington, D.C.) earned Player of the Year accolades in a vote by the Ivy League coaches. The Rookie of the Year honor went to Harvard's Jess Halpern (Longmeadow, Mass.), who also earned a second team selection as a midfielder.
The 2007 National Goalkeeper of the Year, Waxman picks up the Ivy Player of the Year honor after steering the defense to a national-best 6.00 team goals-against average. She holds a .509 save percentage and has shut out teams in four halves. One team, shut out in the second half of the game, was the aforementioned top-ranked, three-time national champion Northwestern. In addition to being the first Quakers since Wendy DiDomenico in 1989 to be the Ivy League Player of the Year, Waxman is just the second Penn player ever to receive the award.
Halpern was second on the Crimson in scoring and 10th in the league with 2.12 goals per game. She scored 34 tallies in her freshman campaign and added 12 assists for 46 points. Her 2.93 points per game were eighth in the league standings. Halpern started every game at midfield. She scored in 15 of the Crimson’s 16 games, collective two or more points 13 times.
Joining Waxman on the first-team is a formidable line up that would strike fear in opponents across the nation, as it includes the reigning Ivy Player and Rookie of the Year.
Rachel Manson of Penn was tabbed as unanimous first-team attack selection and was joined by Cornell's Courtney Farrell and Kristen Barry of Dartmouth. Both players return to the first-team from did a year ago. Four-time All-Ivy selection and 2007 Player of the Year Lauren Taylor of Yale and 2007 Rookie of the Year, Ali DeLuca of Penn join Princeton's Holly McGarvie and Cornell's Katherine Simmons as unanimous selections in the midfield. Joining the group in the middle of the park is Penn's Melissa Lehman. The first-team defense was led by Penn's Tarah Kirnan, Princeton's Marie McKenna and Yale's Jess Champion, who returns to the first team from a year ago.
Penn's Rachel Manson (Alexandria, Va.), who earned second team honors last season, leads the Quakers in goals, assists and total points on the year. Heading this season, she was already in the program’s top-10 of goals and points. With 27 and 45 points through 15 games this season, she has climbed to third in goals (108) and fourth in points (147).
Courtney Farrell (Fayetteville, N.Y.), a Tewaaraton Trophy watch list selection and two-year member of the junior national team, led the team in points (54), assists (26), game-winning goals (3) and ground balls (25). The two-time Ivy League Player of the Week graduates as the school's all-time leader in points (213) and assists (91). The first-team IWLCA all-region pick in 2007also holds school records for season assists (34) and assists in a game (6), which she has reached twice. Farrell holds the NCAA record for fastest goal to start a game (8 seconds) in a 2007 win at Loyola (MD). Her 1.62 assists per game were good for first in the Ivy League and 27th in the nation, while her 3.38 points per game rank her fourth in the conference. She ended her career by registering at least one point in her last 53 games, the third-longest streak in the country.
Dartmouth's Kristen Barry (Duxbury, Mass.) returns to the first team from a year ago after a senior campaign that yielded a top-5 listing in goals and points per game league-wide. The co-captain also was second on the team in draw controls. She led the Big Green in overall points and routinely was the focus of the opposition's defense.
An All-America candidate who was on the watch list for the Tewaaraton Trophy, Lauren Taylor (Manhasset, N.Y.) won the Barbara Bowditch Award as Yale's team MVP for the second straight time this year. She led the Bulldogs with 41 goals and 59 points, the fourth straight season she has led Yale in both of those categories. She finished her career with 198 goals and 246 points, placing second to Tracy Ball '81 on Yale's all-time lists in both categories. She is just the fourth player in League history to be named first team All-Ivy four times.
Last year’s Ivy Rookie of the Year, Penn's Ali DeLuca (Hillsborough, N.J.) has continued to impress in league games. She has excelled in every statistical category, ranking first on the team in draw controls (36) and caused turnovers (21), third in goals (19) and points (33), second in assists (14) and fourth in ground balls (21). She also led the Ivy League, scoring the game-winner in three of the seven conference outings.
Holly McGarvie (Medford, N.J.), one of 18 nominees for the Tewaaraton Trophy honoring the national player of the year, leads the Tigers with 39 ground balls, 38 draw controls and 24 caused turnovers. On the offensive end of the field, McGarvie was second on the Tigers with 31 goals and third with 41 points while starting all 16 games.
Katherine Simmons (Salisbury, Conn.) also returns for her fourth All-Ivy selection. The crafty midfielder was a second-team selection as freshmen and a first-team selection since sophomore year. She finished second on the team in goals with 32 and assists with 12. The senior midfielder's 44 points were good for third on the team. Simmons' 2.13 goals per game were eighth best in the conference, while her 2.93 points per game ranked her seventh in the conference. The two-year captain supplemented her offensive output by leading the Big Red with 17 caused turnovers. In a game against Brown, Simmons matched an NCAA record for fastest goal to begin a game by scoring just eight seconds after the opening whistle, matching a record also held by Farrell. Her 128 career goals rank fourth in school history, while her 152 points are seventh all-time.
Rounding out the midfield is Penn's Melissa Lehman (Oceanport, N.J.). A senior, Lehman was an honorable mention in 2007 and jumped to the first team in 2008. She is the team’s second leading scorer with 36 points (26g, 10a). She is a reliable defender and caused nine turnovers this season. She has won 15 draw controls and grabbed 15 ground balls.
On the defensive end, the first-team returned a familiar face and saw two newcomers to the team. Yale's Jess Champion (Moorestown, N.J.) returns to the first team in her third stint as an All-Ivy selection. She was the top player on the No. 4 ranked Bulldog defense, and was regularly assigned to cover the opposing team's best player. She combined a solid and consistent 1v1 defensive ability with a knack for changing the game with a timely interception, caused turnover or draw control. Champion was second on the team in draw controls (22) and third in caused turnovers (18) while committing only nine turnovers herself and serving as a key part of Yale's clears.
After starting her career as an attacker, Penn's Tarah Kirnan (Pennington, N.J.) made the switch to defense in 2007 that paid dividends this season with her first All-Ivy nod. While defending top Ivy League attackers, Kirnan’s marks rarely scored more than once, if at all. She caused 18 turnovers this season and picked up 24 ground balls. Kirnan has helped Waxman and the defense shut down some of the nation’s best attacks. No team has scored more than 10 goals against the Quakers this season.
Marie McKenna (Glenside, Pa.) who has started all 16 games for Princeton on defense, has helped the Tigers rank No. 8 nationally in scoring defense, allowing just more than eight goals per game. The junior ranks third on the team with 25 ground balls and second on the team with 22 caused turnovers. She also has 11 draw controls and just seven turnovers this season.
2008 Women's Lacrosse Player Awards
*Unanimous selection
Player of the Year:
Sarah Waxman, Penn (Sr., Washington, D.C.)
Rookie of the Year:
*Jess Halpern, Harvard (Fr., Longmeadow, Mass.)
First Team
*Attack - Rachel Manson, Penn (Sr., Alexandria, Va.)
Attack - Courtney Farrell, Cornell (Sr., Fayetteville, N.Y.)
Attack - Kristen Barry, Dartmouth (Sr., Duxbury, Mass.)
*Midfield - Ali DeLuca, Penn (So., Hillsborough, N.J.)
*Midfield - Holly McGarvie, Princeton (Jr., Medford, N.J.)
*Midfield - Katherine Simmons, Cornell (Sr., Salisbury, Conn.)
*Midfield - Lauren Taylor, Yale (Sr., Manhasset, N.Y.)
Midfield - Melissa Lehman, Penn (Sr., Oceanport, N.J.)
Defense - Tarah Kirnan, Penn (Sr., Pennington, N.J.)
Defense - Marie McKenna, Princeton (Jr., Glenside, Pa.)
Defense - Jess Champion, Yale (Sr., Moorestown, N.J.)
*Goalkeeper - Sarah Waxman, Penn (Sr., Washington, D.C.)
Second Team
Attack - Holly Glynn, Columbia (Jr., Waltham, Mass.)
Attack - Kaitlin Martin, Harvard (Jr., Longmeadow, Mass.)
Attack - Christine Casaceli, Princeton (Jr., Longmeadow, Mass.)
Midfield - Katie Cox, Princeton (So., Garden City, N.Y.)
Midfield - Lauren Vitkus, Brown (Jr., Skaneateles, N.Y.)
Midfield - Jenn Warden, Yale (Jr., Edgemont, Pa.)
Midfield - Jess Halpern, Harvard (Fr., Longmeadow, Mass.)
Midfield - Greta Meyer, Dartmouth (Fr., Denver, Colo.)
Midfield - Noelle Dowd, Cornell (Sr., Yorktown, N.Y.)
Defense - Hilary Renna, Penn (Jr., Mountain Lakes, N.J.)
Defense - Norris Novak, Princeton (Sr., Baltimore, Md.)
Defense - Kelly Hansen, Cornell (Jr., Lutherville, Md.)
Defense - Lauren Bobzin, Harvard (Sr., Narberth, Pa.)
Goalkeeper - Ellen Cameron, Yale (Sr., Monkton, Md.)
Honorable Mention
Noelle DiGioia, Brown (Jr., D, Pittsburgh, Pa.); Brittany Shannon, Columbia (So., A, Garden City, N.Y.); Marisa Marcellino, Columbia (Sr., M, Washington, D.C.); Tissy O'Connor, Cornell (So., M/D, Winchester, Mass.); Kat Collins, Dartmouth (Fr., A, Darien, Conn.); Kristin Schwab, Princeton (Jr., M, Baltimore, Md.); Kat Peetz, Yale (Sr., M, Spring Lake, N.J.)
- A.S.
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