May 30, 2006
EVANSTON, Ill. -- The IWLCA/US Lacrosse and insidelacrosse.com today honored five Wildcats who were among the 48 Division I women's lacrosse student-athletes named to the three All-America teams. Kristen Kjellman, Sarah Albrecht and Lindsey Munday all were named to the first team, Lindsay Finocchiaro to the second team and Aly Josephs third team. The IWLCA and US Lacrosse will honor the National All-Americans at an awards banquet on June 10 in Baltimore, Md.
The three first team selections and the five overall were the most of any school. Kjellman is this year's Offensive Midfielder of the Year by Indsidelacrosse.com for the second straight year.
Both Kjellman and Munday are repeat first teamers from last season and it marks the third honor overall for Kjellman who also took home second team honors as a freshman in 2004. The honor is the second for Albrecht and the first for both Finocchiaro and Jospehs.
Kjellman, a finalist for the Tewaaraton Award and the NCAA Honda Award, led the nation's top scoring offense with 72 goals of her own and ranked among the national leaders in goals, points (98) and draw controls (91). She led her team to its second-straight NCAA championship on Sunday as the Wildcats became the first team in Northwestern history to claim back-to-back NCAA team titles. Kjellman, the first Wildcat to claim three straight IWLCA All-America honors, had 17 games this year with a hat trick or better, including a season-high six goals at Penn back on March 7.
Albrecht is coming off the biggest weekend of her Northwestern career as she was named the NCAA Championship's Most Valuable Player at the finals in Boston. She scored the game-winner in overtime in the semifinal win over top-seeded Duke on Friday. Then in the championship on Sunday, Albrecht scored two big goals and assisted another when leading scorer Kjellman went down with an ankle injury. She finished the season with 35 goals and 15 points, grabbed 57 ground balls and 65 draw controls.
Munday ranked in the top five nationally in assists all season long, leading her team with 50 and finished third on the team with 44 goals. She ends her Northwestern career as the all-time assists leader with 128. Munday had eight assists in two wins at California and Stanford, helping her become just the 26th player in NCAA history to record 100 or more career assists.
Finocchiaro, regarded by many as one of the top defenders in the nation, did all the little things that go unnoticed from her defender spot. She helped anchor a defense that gave up just 8.1 goals per game, good for eighth-best in the nation, and helped hold 15 teams to nine goals or less-including four to Dartmouth in the NCAA title game. The junior from Fairfield, N.J. finished the season with 25 ground balls, caused 18 turnovers, 14 draw controls and tallied two goals.
Josephs was another one of the heroes in the championship win over Dartmouth, scoring four of Northwestern's seven goals in helping the 'Cats to back-to-back national titles. She was second on the team with 55 goals-scoring multiple goals in all but two games-and was the only Wildcat to score a goal in all 21 games this year. She also had eight assists to finish third on the team with 63 points to go with 43 ground balls.
Attacker of the Year: Crysti Foote, Notre Dame
Offensive Middie of the Year: Kristen Kjellman, Northwestern
Defensive Middie of the Year: Nikki Lieb, Virginia
Defender of the Year: Jenn Cook, North Carolina
Goalie of the Year: Maggie Koch, Georgetown
Coach of the Year: Tracy Coyne, Notre Dame
Rookie of the Year: Blair Weymouth, Virginia