BEREA, OHIO -- Three Baldwin Wallace University women's lacrosse student-athletes, freshman attack Sierra Thomas (Medina) and freshmen midfielders Maddie Russell (Lakewood/Rocky River) and Katie Kocher (Rocky River), were named to the 2014 All-Ohio Athletic Conference first-team.
This is the first year for women's lacrosse as an OAC sanctioned team sport and this is the first-ever All-OAC lacrosse team. Previously when OAC schools had lacrosse (men's and women's), they were members of the Midwest Lacrosse League (MRL).
Thomas, who played played in all 18 games, was the top scorer for the Yellow Jackets as she scored a team-leading and school-record 70 goals, was fifth with 14 assists for 84 total points. She also took a team-high 114 shots, had a school-record 106 ground balls and 80 draw controls and tied with Russell for a school-record 58 caused turnovers. Five times Thomas scored a school-record six goals in a single game and was a three-time OAC Player of the Week.
Russell was second with 55 goals, 24 assists, 79 total points, 97 shots, 40 draw controls and 96 ground balls. She tied Thomas for the school mark in caused turnovers with 58. Russell had a career-high five goals on two separate occassions and was named as an OAC Player of the Week.
Kocher led the team with a school-record 49 assists, scored 10 goals and had 59 total points to rank third. She also had 58 ground balls to rank second, took 25 shots and had 31 draw controls and 27 caused turnovers.
This season, BW posted a record of 14-4 overall and 3-1 in the OAC and advanced to the OAC Championship Game. The Yellow Jacket set the school-record for victories in a season with 14 and for consecutive wins with 10. After two seasons, BW has compiled a 18-10 record.
FOR MORE BW SPORTS INFORMATION, please contact Sports Information Director Kevin Ruple by telephone at 440-826-2327 and e-mail at kruple@bw.edu or Assistant SID Jeff Miller by phone at 440-826-2780 and email at jefmille@bw.edu. Fans can access the latest BW athletics information at www.bwyellowjackets.com and we invite you to join us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bwyellowjackets and Twitter at http://twitter.com/bwathletics.
