I apologize for the rare Tuesday edition of Canadians in the NCAA. It was a busy weekend both in the NLL and the NCAA, and I needed some time to get caught up on everything after traveling home yesterday. On that note, I decided to shift the schedule for this column going forward.
Monday’s will be reserved for men’s and women’s Division I. Going forward, the Division II competitors will appear in a Wednesday edition of the article. That way I have time to get through the data and also can focus on each division sufficiently to highlight the great performances.
I wanted to start this week by mentioning two players who have not seen enough recognition in this column. UAlbany’s Silas Richmond (Delta, BC) has quietly put together one of the best statistical seasons by any Canadian this year. On the weekend, he tacked on three more points with 2 goals and 1 assist. This brought his total to 38 points on the season, good for sixth amongst Canucks.
Credit to Adam Lamberti for a great clip of Richmond.
The second is UVA’s Jack Boyden, who has become a significant contributor for a team that is likely to be playing on memorial day. Boyden was one of the most productive players in the history of Division III during his tenure at Tufts. But he deserves tons of credit for transitioning to a supporting role on a loaded Cavalier offence. With 13 goals and 14 assists, he has been one of the most productive scoring midfielders this year, especially amongst Canadians.
While we are giving flowers, credit to Matt Collison (Scarborough, Ontario) who scored the overtime winner in a massive game for the Johns Hopkins Blue Jays. Not all goals are created equal, and Collison found a way to get it done against a stingy Penn State defence and goaltender. Good celly too.
On the subject of not getting enough attention in this column, Calgary’s Milana Zizakovic had a monster weekend for Towson, scoring 9 goals and 2 assists in two games. She’s up to second among Canadian scorers this year. Keep shooting the rock, Milana!
Jumping back to the men’s side, the high water mark of the entire weekend was once again contributed by High Point’s Brayden Mayea (Windsor, Ontario), who scored 5 goals and 4 assists this past weekend against St. Bonaventure. In doing so, he became the all-time leading scorer at High Point. With lots of time to pad his lead, he has locked up a place on the Mount Rushmore of High Point Panthers. Congratulations to him, and everyone who had a hand in his lacrosse journey.
Speaking of records, the all-time scoring record in Divsion I mens lacrosse is 221. On the weekend, Payton Cormier scored goal number 200. As mentioned several times, we aren’t in the jinx business, so I’ll stop there. Go PC Go!
Other outstanding performances this weekend came from Levi Anderson (Calgary, Alberta), Brock Haley (Port Hope, Ontario) and Owen Hiltz (Peterborough, Ontario).
The trio each had five points last week. Haley and Hiltz had hat-tricks, while Anderson added 2 goals and 3 assists.
NJIT’s Arthur Miller (Nanoose Bay, BC) had 4 goals and 1 assists to stay hot for the Highlanders.
On the women’s side, the best performance by someone other than Zizakovic was Jillian Goldie (Owen Sound, Ontario), who had 7 goals and 2 assists for UMass Lowell in two games. Meanwhile, Jami MacDonald (Georgetown, Ontario) had 5 goals and 4 assists for the Princeton Tigers.
Kassidy Morris (Washago, Ontario) had 3 goals and 2 assists for UMass Amherst and remains the highest scoring Canadian woman in Division I.
Defensively, Paige Stachura (Orillia, Ontario) had a fantastic week for Canisius, coming up with 5 caused turnovers and 7 ground balls in two games.
Another great performance came from Denver’s Lauren Black (New Westminster, BC). In two games, she had 5 goals, 1 assist, 3 caused turnovers, and a groundball. Lauren was all over the field for the Pioneers.
Lastly, Quinnipiac’s Amy Nicoloff (Toronto, Ontario) had 3 caused turnovers and 3 ground balls, while Jacksonville’s Maggie Cuddy (Brooklin, Ontario) had 3 caused turnovers and a whopping 7 ground balls for the Dolphins.
Defensively for the men, Mitchell Dunham (Hamilton, Ontario) had one of the best games of the entire season, causing 4 turnovers and picking up 8 ground balls.
That was matched by an equally amazing performance from Syracuse midfielder Jake Stevens, who had 4 assists and 9 ground balls(!) against Cornell.
Some final stud performances came from Utah’s Luke Pivetta (Victoria, BC) who had 4 caused turnovers and 3 ground balls, and Loyola’s Josh Fairey (Guelph, Ontario) who had three of each.
As always, check out the entire statistics database here.
Thanks for reading!