Maryland women’s lacrosse earned five of the six Big Ten end of season awards Monday.
Cathy Reese was selected as Coach of the Year, Megan Whittle earned Attacker of the Year, Julia Braig is Defender of the Year, Megan Taylor was named Goaltender of the Year and midfielder Grace Griffin took Freshman of the Year.
Reese was the only unanimous selection. The 12th-year head coach led the Terps to their fourth consecutive Big Ten regular season championship and third straight Big Ten tournament championship, accumulating an 18-1 record, not dropping a conference game and earning a No. 1-seed in the NCAA tournament. This is her third consecutive year earning the honor, a conference record.
Whittle, recently named MVP of the Big Ten tournament, led the conference in points (86), goals (74), points per game (4.53) and goals per game (3.9). The senior was a unanimous All-Big Ten selection.
Braig, a returning starter on a unit that had turnover in the offseason, led the Terps defense to the best goals against average (9.55) and draw controls (16.83) in the Big Ten. She was also a unanimous All-Big Ten selection and had 24 ground balls and 10 caused turnovers.
Taylor earned the honor for her third consecutive year, the only goalkeeper to do so in Big Ten history. She finished the year with a 9.69 goals-against average and a .466 save percentage. The Terps held opponents to 10 or fewer goals in half of her 18 starts.
Griffin, Maryland’s only freshman starter, notched 28 goals and 35 points in her rookie campaign and scored 1.47 goals per conference game. She is Maryland’s second consecutive freshman of the year, after attacker Kali Hartshorn won the honor last season.
Penn State’s Katie O’Donnell won Big Ten Midfielder of the Year, the only award Maryland did not earn.
The Terps begin their national title defense Friday in College Park against the winner of Denver and High Point in College Park.
