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CLEVELAND, Ohio --Â Five members of the Allegheny College lacrosse team received All-North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) honors for their performances during the 2018 season.Â
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Seniors
Shelby Piper and
Brie Freeman, along with sophomore
Emily Kraus  were All-NCAC First Team selections while
Maddie Olson and
Laurence Busque earned All-NCAC Second Team honors.
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Piper, an attacker, had arguably the best season of her storied career in 2018 as she earned her second straight All-NCAC First Team honor and her third All-NCAC honor overall. She finished the season with 102 points on 66 goals and 36 assists. Her points total topped the conference as she finished second in assists and third in goals. In all 17 games, Piper tallied at least three points while totaling nine points on three different occasions. Against Washington & Jefferson College and Hiram College, Piper scored season-highs of six goals. At DePauw University, she had a season-high seven assists. In addition to her offensive presence, Piper tied for the team-high with 43 groundballs, and tied for fourth with 21 caused turnovers. Piper ends her career ranked second all-time in program history with 96 assists, and third in both points (293) and goals (197).Â
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Freeman, a defender, earned her fourth All-NCAC honor and her first All-NCAC First Team nod. A shutdown defender, Freeman was second on the team with 32 caused turnovers while tying Piper for the team-lead with 43 groundballs. Her caused turnover total ranked fourth in the NCAC and her groundball total tied for seventh. She caused two or more turnovers in nine games during the season. Against Washing & Jefferson and DePauw, she caused five turnovers. Freeman collected two or more groundballs in 11 games, including seven games with four or more. She had a season-high five groundballs against Washington & Jefferson and Baldwin Wallace University. Freeman also scored a goal on senior day against Wittenberg University. She ends her career by starting in all 66 games, with a total of 94 caused turnovers and 117 ground balls.Â
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In her first season at Allegheny, Kraus earned All-NCAC First Team honors. Kraus finished second on the team and seventh in the NCAC with 53 goals. With the addition of her 10 assists, Kraus was eighth overall in the NCAC for points. The sophomore midfielder had a goal in all but one game, with 12 games of three or more goals. Kraus found the back of the net a season-high six times against the College of Wooster. Her season-high in points came against Fredonia State University when she had five goals and two assists. In addition to her offensive numbers, Kraus had 26 groundballs, 15 caused turnovers and 52 draw controls.
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Olson earned her first All-NCAC honor on the Second Team. The sophomore attacker was second on the team and fourth in the NCAC with 72 points on 43 goals and 29 assists. She recorded a point in every contest, and had 10 contests with four or more points. Against Hiram, Olson had a season-high eight points on a season-best six assists. Her five goals against Baldwin Wallace and Ohio Wesleyan also marked season-highs. In addition to her offense, Olson tallied 30 groundballs, 27 caused turnovers and a team-high 103 draw controls. For her career, Olson has tallied 124 points on 75 goals and 49 assists.
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Junior defender
Laurence Busque earned All-NCAC Second Team honors for the second straight year. Busque led the Gators with 39 caused turnovers, second most in the NCAC. Playing in 14 games, Busque had 11 games with two or more caused turnovers and five games with four or more. She caused a season-high five turnovers against Washington & Jefferson, Ohio Wesleyan and Denison University. Busque also collected 39 groundballs, which ranked third on the team and 11
th in the conference. Against Washington & Jefferson, she had a season-high six. In two years with the Gators, Busque has tallied 68 groundballs and 63 caused turnovers.
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The NCAC also announced their annual award winners. Denison's Jane Goodspeed and Leah Israel earned
Offensive and
Midfielder of the Year honors, respectively. Wooster also had two winners as Alexa Mellis was named
Newcomer of the Year and Liz Ford was named
Coach of the Year. Natalie Rauchle of Oberlin College rounded out the awards as she earned
Offensive Player of the Year honors.
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