NORTHBOROUGH, Mass. - The Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches' Association (IWLCA) has announced its academic award winners for 2022-23 and the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth women's lacrosse team has been recognized. As a team, the Corsairs were named an Academic Honor Squad, while five student-athletes were tabbed to the Division III Honor Roll for their outstanding work in the classroom.
UMass Dartmouth was one of 290 schools across Division I, II, III, and NAIA to earn IWLCA Academic Honor Squad recognition for this past year. To qualify for this prestigious honor, the women's lacrosse team must have posted a 3.2 or higher team GPA for the academic year. The Corsairs, who went 8-8 overall, advanced to the Little East Conference Tournament behind points from 10 of the squad's 14 field players.
Individually, the squad saw five players garner Honor Roll recognition paced by junior midfielder
Widline Thomas. Appearing in 16 games during the 2023 season, Thomas recorded 27 goals and seven assists for 34 points - ranking third on the squad in goals and points. She posted 59 shots, including 40 on goal, going 11-of-18 on free position attempts. In addition to 41 ground balls, she notched 26 caused turnovers - which was second on the team - with 61 draw controls.
Junior defender
Claire Petersen - a 2023 All-Little East Second Team honoree - started all 16 games for the Corsairs, notching an assist. Tied for second in ground balls with 45, Petersen posted 17 caused turnovers and won three draw controls. Junior attack
Hannah Mitus was tabbed following a season in which she played in 13 games. Tallying eight goals with two assists for 10 points, Mitus posted 30 shots - 21 on goal, while going 4-of-6 in free position attempts. Mitus also recorded six ground balls with three caused turnovers and a draw control.Â
Also recognized was junior attack
Ruby Sanger, who played in 12 contests for the 2023 season. Posting an assist, Sanger had three shots, two on goal, while notching five ground balls and a caused turnover. Rounding out the honorees was senior midfielder
Carmen Zhao, who started all 16 games. Recording 14 ground balls, Zhao also added five caused turnovers and a draw control.
The 2023 season saw the IWLCA honor 963 student-athletes from 173 different institutions on the Division III Academic Honor Roll. To be eligible for this honor, student-athletes must be a junior, senior, or graduate student and have earned a cumulative academic GPA of 3.50 or greater.
