USILA Academic Team Award Release

The College of Wooster men's lacrosse team was among the 54 NCAA Div. III programs that qualified for the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association Academic Team Award, which was announced by the organization on Monday.

The award caps a banner season for the Fighting Scots' program on and off the field. Wooster set a new program record with 13 wins (13-4), strung together a program-record 11-game winning streak, and junior Casey Steffen earned All-America honors after breaking the NCAA Div. III single-season record with 5.06 caused turnovers per game. Steffen's 86 caused turnovers more than doubled the old single-season program record and he posted the third-most caused turnovers in a season in NCAA Div. III history. As a team, Wooster's 62.7 opponent clearing percentage led the nation, while the Scots had top-three national marks in groundballs per game (45.00) and caused turnovers per game (14.88).

Wooster's academic achievements were headlined by junior Shane Epstein-Petrullo's third-team College Sports Communicators Academic All-America® honor, while junior Vinny DiLeo, senior Tucker Joseph, and junior Henry McMahon joined him on the Academic All-District® squad. Fifteen men's lacrosse players qualified for the North Coast Athletic Conference Academic Honor Roll this year, with that ranking as the fourth-most honorees from a sport at the College.

To qualify, teams must post a GPA of at least 3.0. Within the NCAC, just Wooster and Kenyon qualified.