Maryland, the No. 1 seed for this week’s 2014 ACC Men’s Lacrosse Championship, leads all schools with five selections to the All-ACC team. Duke, which shared the regular-season title with the Terrapins, joins North Carolina with four members on the squad.
Duke placed Deemer Class, Brendan Fowler, Myles Jones and Jordan Wolf on the squad. North Carolina’s selections are Jimmy Bitter, Ryan Creighton, Joey Sankey and Chad Tutton.
Notre Dame and Syracuse each have two All-ACC members, and Virginia one.
Niko Amato, Mike Chanenchuk, Mike Ehrhardt, Goran Murray and Charlie Raffa represent Maryland.
Matt Kavanagh and Steve O’Hara are Notre Dame’s first-ever All-ACC selections, while Brandon Mullins and Kevin Rice are the first to be named from Syracuse. Mark Cockerton represents Virginia on this year’s All-ACC team.
Five members of the All-ACC teams are multi-year honorees as Duke’s Wolf and Maryland’s Amato collected All-ACC honors for the fourth times of their careers, joining only five other former ACC greats as four-time selections – NC State’s Stan Cockerton (1977-80), Maryland’s Pete Worstell (1977-78, 1980-81) and Virginia’s Scott Gerham (1981-84), Roddy Marino (1983-86) and Michael Watson (1994-97). Duke’s Fowler, North Carolina’s Sankey and Virginia’s Cockerton are repeat honorees having earned All-ACC honors in 2013.
Duke’s Wolf (3.29) and Virginia’s Cockerton (2.93) rank 1-2 among conference players and in goals per game. Wolf ranks third nationally, while Cockerton stands eighth. Wolf(4.79) and Syracuse’s Rice (4.5) lead the ACC in overall scoring and rank a respective fifth and sixth among all NCAA Division I players.
Rice leads the ACC and is tied for sixth nationally with 2.33 assists per match, followed by Notre Dame’s Kavanaugh at 2.0 per contest.
Maryland’s Amato has been solid in the net again this season, ranking fifth nationally while allowing a conference-low 7.38 goals per game. Duke’s Fowler (9.5) stands fifth nationally in ground balls per game, and Maryland’s Raffa (8.3) ranks second to Fowler among ACC players. Raffa’s .663 faceoff winning percentage leads the ACC and ranks third nationally.
The All-ACC team was determined by a vote of the league’s six head coaches who could not vote for their own players.
The 2014 ACC Men’s Lacrosse Championship gets under way with two semifinal games Friday at PPL Park in Chester, Pa. Second-seeded Duke faces No. 3 Syracuse at 5 p.m., followed by No. 4 Notre Dame vs. No. 1 Maryland at 7:30 p.m. An “ACC Showcase Game” between North Carolina and Virginia will be played Saturday night at 7:30, followed by Sunday’s 1 p.m. title game between Friday evening’s winners.
ESPNU will televise the Friday evening semifinals and Sunday’s championship game, while ESPN3 will show the “ACC Showcase” on Saturday.
Individual awards, including Offensive Player, Defensive Player, Coach and Freshman of the Year, will be voted on by the league’s head coaches following the ACC Championship.
2014 All-ACC Men’s Lacrosse Team
Deemer Class, So., M, Duke
Brendan Fowler, Sr., M, Duke !*
Myles Jones, So., M, Duke
Jordan Wolf, Sr., A, Duke %*
Niko Amato, Sr., G, Maryland %*
Mike Chanenchuk, Sr., M, Maryland *
Mike Ehrhardt, Sr., D, Maryland *
Goran Murray, Jr., D, Maryland
Charlie Raffa, Jr., M, Maryland
Jimmy Bitter, Jr., A, North Carolina
Ryan Creighton, Sr., M, North Carolina
Joey Sankey, Jr., A, North Carolina !*
Chad Tutton, Jr., M, North Carolina *
Matt Kavanagh, So., A, Notre Dame*
Steve O’Hara, Sr., D, Notre Dame *
Brandon Mullins, R-So., D, Syracuse
Kevin Rice, Jr., A, Syracuse *
Mark Cockerton, Sr., A, Virginia !*
% Four-time All-ACC Team selection
! Two-time All-ACC Team selection
* 2014 Tewaaraton Award Candidates
– News release