Eight Diplomats Named All-Centennial

Complete Team (.pdf)

LANCASTER, Pa. – Eight members of #2 Franklin & Marshall’s women’s lacrosse team were named to the All-Centennial Conference Team when it was announced early Thursday evening. Four Diplomats (15-1) were named to the league’s First Team, a pair landed on the Second Team while two were given Honorable Mention.

The Centennial’s coaches choose the team.

Attack, Jen Pritchard (Media, Pa. / Penncrest), midfielders, Shannon Summers (North Wales, Pa. / Hill School) and Sarah Meisenberg (Severna Park, Md. / Severn School), and goalkeeper, Lidia Sanza (Cockeysville, Md. / St. Paul’s School for Girls) were all named to the First Team. Pritchard and Meisenberg are the 12th and 13th players in Conference history to earn first-team All-Centennial three times.

Attack Blake Hargest (Cockeysville, Md. / St. Paul’s School for Girls) and defender, Devi Hensch (Bordentown, N.J. / Northern Burlington Regional) were named to the Second Team.  Midfielder Ashley Bevington (Schwenksville, Pa. / Hill School) and defender Paulette Cutruzzula (Pittsburgh, Pa. / The Ellis School). 

Pritchard was second in the Centennial Conference scoring 3.25 goals per game in league action. She was one of F&M’s four 30-plus goal-scorers this season, dumping the ball in the cage 46 times. Pritchard is the Diplomats all-time scoring leader, entering this weekend’s Conference Championship Tournament with 250 tallies in her career. Two of Pritchard’s three game-winning goals this season were scored in league play.

A Second Teamer a year ago, Summers was one of two unanimous choices for the First Team in 2009. She registered 6.88 points and 4.25 assists per game in Centennial play. That’s 1.77 more points and 1.36 assists more than any other player in the league.  Her 2.62 goals per game ranked fifth in league-play.  Summers was second in the league in draw controls per game with 3.5 per contest. Her 83 points (32g, 51a) leads the team and leaves her 13 points shy of becoming the third Diplomat to reach the 300-point mark in her career.

Meisenberg played most of the season nicked-up, but managed to come up fifth in caused turnover per game with 1.67 each contest. She scored 11 goals and handed out 19 assists this year with three goals and nine assists in the league. She had 12 caused turnovers and 12 ground balls in six league appearances.

A Second Team pick last year, Lidia Sanza backstopped the nation’s top defense. The unit has allowed a paltry 6.07 goals against average so far this season. In league games, that number dropped to 4.88. Sanza’s overall .585 save percentage climbed to .625 in league games. She turned away a season high 15 shots in Tuesday’s win over Gettysburg, securing homefield advantage for the Championship Tournament.

Hargest lands on the Second Team for the second-straight year. She finished the regular season fourth in the league in assists per game with 2.25 helpers each time out.  She scored 19 times and assisted on 32 goals to finish the regular season with 51 points.

Devi Hensch has long been one of the Diplomats unsung heroes. The senior landed on the All-Centennial team for the first time this season. She caused 13 turnovers and gathered 21 groundballs from the back end. Hensch is the catalyst in the Diplomats’ clear, which is successful 82 percent of the time.

Bevington was given Honorable Mention after scoring 35 goals and assisting on eight more this season. She has scored three-game winning goals and her 22 ground balls leave her in the top five on the team.

Cutruzulla earned her first All-Centennial honor after gather a team-best 31 ground balls. She caused 11 turnovers. A pillar on the Diplomats’ back end, she is the only defender to have started all 15 games on the nation’s top unit.

The Diplomats outscored the Centennial 148-39 in the nine regular season games to complete its third consecutive year without a loss in league play. F&M has won back-to-back Centennial Conference championships and will host the Championship Tournament on Saturday and Sunday.