BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Lehigh men’s lacrosse senior Dan Taylor has been named Patriot League Offensive Player of the Year while four Mountain Hawks earned All-League honors, as announced on Monday. Taylor earned first team All-Patriot League while seniors Kurtis Kaunas, Lukas Mikelinich and junior Casey Eidenshink garnered second team laurels. Taylor leads the Patriot League and is fourth nationally with 74 points (40 goals, 34 assists). He owns 25 more points than anyone else in the league.
Taylor becomes Lehigh’s fourth-ever Patriot League Offensive Player of the Year, joining Mark Duncan (1998), Matt Sweetman (1995) and Jeff Jenkins (1994). Taylor has emerged, especially over the last two seasons, as one of the best attackmen (and players) in the nation. He tallied 76 points a season ago to earn first team All-Patriot League and All-America recognition. The success has continued this season as he’s tallied four or more points 12 times, including each of the last six games. Taylor tallied 10 points (five goals, five assists) at Furman in February which earned him Patriot League and USILA National Offensive Player of the Week honors. More recently, Taylor earned the league honor again and was named National Player of the Week from Lacrosse Magazine after six points against #14 Princeton, including the game-winning goal with 16 seconds remaining, and seven points at #18 Stony Brook.
The Calgary, Alberta native has reached 217 career points, which is second in school history and fourth in Patriot League history. In last Friday’s win vs. Lafayette, he surpassed Army’s Jeremy Boltus for fifth place in league history and is now just eight points behind former Tewaaraton Award winner Peter Baum in third. Baum tallied 225 career points. With his 76 points last year and 74 so far this season, Taylor currently owns the fifth and sixth highest point totals for a single season in league history.
The awards have been endless for the senior co-captain. Taylor was named to the Tewaaraton Award Watch List and was a Senior CLASS Award Candidate. He was selected 38th overall by the Denver Outlaws in the Major League Lacrosse Collegiate Draft in January.
Kaunas earned second team All-Patriot League honors for a second straight season. He stands third on the team, and tops among midfielders, with 31 points behind 21 goals and 10 assists to up his career totals to 51 and 21, respectively. Kaunas tallied his second-career hat trick earlier this month against #14 Princeton before scoring twice, including the go-ahead goal in the fourth quarter, at #18 Stony Brook as Lehigh took down two straight nationally-ranked foes. Kaunas has eight multi-goal games this season, reaching four points on two separate occasions.
A co-captain, with Taylor, Mikelinich has anchored the Lehigh defense which has allowed 9.87 goals per game this season. Mikelinich owns 30 groundballs and 11 caused turnovers in 13 games (all starts). Among his highlights were tallying two groundballs and three caused turnovers at Furman and #18 Stony Brook. This marks the second time Mikelinich has earned All-Patriot League honors; he was also named to the second team as a sophomore in 2012.
Junior Casey Eidenshink entered the starting lineup at close defense and has excelled. Eidenshink leads the team in groundballs (46) and caused turnovers (21), reaching double-figure caused turnovers on six separate occasions. One highlight came at #18 Stony Brook when he held the nation’s leading goal scorer Brody Eastwood (who had scored 50 goals over his first 12 games) to just one goal on only two shots. Eidenshink added two groundballs and three caused turnovers in that game. He also tallied three groundballs and a career-high four caused turnovers in a win over Boston University while adding four groundballs and three caused turnovers at Colgate. Eidenshink had six groundballs and two caused turnovers at Navy as well.
With their 11-10 win over Lafayette on Friday, the Mountain Hawks qualified for their fifth straight Patriot League Tournament. Seeded sixth, Lehigh will travel to #3 seed Bucknell on Tuesday at 7 p.m. The game will be streamed live, for free, on the Patriot League Network.
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Offensive Player of the Year: Dan Taylor, Lehigh
Defensive Player of the Year: Chris Fennell, Navy
Goalkeeper of the Year: Sam Somers, Army West Point
Rookie of the Year: Anthony Abbadessa, Colgate
Coach of the Year: Rick Sowell, Navy
First-Team All-League
Dan Taylor, A, Lehigh
John Glesener, A, Army West Point
Zach Herreweyers, A, Loyola Maryland
Ryan Walsh, A, Colgate
Brian Sherlock, M, Loyola Maryland
Matt Clarkson, M, Colgate
David Dickson, M, Bucknell
Cal Dearth, M, Boston U.
Chris Fennell, D, Navy
Pat Frazier, D, Loyola Maryland
Austin Schultz, D, Army West Point
Ben Kellar, D, Bucknell
Brady Dove, FOS, Navy
Alex Spring, LSM, Bucknell
Sam Somers, G, Army West Point
Second-Team All-League**
Nikko Pontrello, A, Loyola Maryland
Sean Wilkinson, A, Holy Cross
Cole Johnson, A, Army West Point
Ryan Joseph, M, Bucknell
Cameron Williams, M, Colgate
Terry McKenna, M, Holy Cross
Kurtis Kaunas, M, Lehigh
Lukas Mikelinich, D, Lehigh
Casey Eidenshink, D, Lehigh
Matt Yeager, D, Colgate
Erik Cannon, D, Lafayette
Matt Rees, D, Navy
Sam Talkow, FOS, Boston U.
Graham Savio, FOS, Loyola Maryland
Jimbo D’Aprile, LSM, Army West Point
John Connors, G, Navy
Brandon Burke, G, Colgate
** Extra players due to ties in the voting
