College Lacrosse News – Guilford’s Garcia Named ODAC Player of the Year; Quakers Place Seven on All-ODAC Teams

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Guilford College junior E’leyna Garcia garnered the Quakers’ first Old Dominion Athletic Conference’s Women’s Lacrosse Player of the Year Award Tuesday. She was also one of four Guilford students named to the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) All-Chesapeake Region teams, which were also released Tuesday.

Eâ??leyna Garcia 2014

Garcia was Guilford’s lone first-team all-region pick, the first Quaker so honored in the program’s 31-year history. Teammates Lily Colley, Eleanora Keene and Liza Mettler each made the second-team squad, which gave coach Sarah Lamphier’s club a record four all-region selections.

Guilford also set a school standard with seven All-ODAC commendations. The Quakers’ four all-region picks, plus rookie defender Summer Fowler, each received First Team All-ODAC laurels. Keene and Mettler become the fourth and fifth students in school history twice named First Team All-ODAC in women’s lacrosse. Juniors Becca Colley and Celine De Perlinghi garnered third-team all-league recognition.

Garcia leads NCAA Division III with an ODAC-record 99 goals through games of May 5. She finished the year with 15 assists for 114 points, another Guilford standard and the nation’s sixth-highest figure. Garcia ranks second in Division III with 5.82 goals per game and sixth with 6.71 points per outing. Her 4.35 draw controls per contest stand 71st in the country and third in the league.

A 5-10 attacker, Garcia won three ODAC Player of the Week Awards, scored at least three goals in every game and totaled a league- and Guilford-best eight game-winning goals. Her school-record 10 tallies in wins over Greensboro College and Catawba College stand eighth in NCAA Division III this season. Garcia added an assist in the Catawba win and tied the Guilford mark with 11 points in the game.

Garcia shattered most of the school’s scoring standards this season and enters her final campaign with 201 goals and 258 points, both Guilford records. The 2012 Second Team All-ODAC honoree has netted at least one goal in each of her 52 college games. Garcia also stands fifth in school history with 137 career draw controls.

Lily Colley was one of only a few students nationwide who kept pace with Garcia’s prolific performance. The junior attacker stands eighth among Division III points per game leaders (6.53) and ninth with 111 points overall, the second-highest total in school history. She scored 72 goals, the nation’s 18th-best figure, second only to Garcia all-time at Guilford. A 2012 third-team all-league pick, Colley set the Quakers’ season assists standard with 39, which sits 28th nationally. She also picked up a career-best 55 ground balls, the 12th-highest total in school history.

Colley earned two ODAC Player of the Week Awards and ranks second in the league in goals, assists and points per game. She also stands third in ground balls per game (3.24) and matched the school standard with 11 points (5 goals, 6 assists) in the Quakers’ Mar. 30 win over ODAC-rival Bridgewater College. Her six helpers in the match rank third all-time at Guilford. She had a game-high nine points (7 goals, 2 assists) in Guilford’s first victory over league-rival Roanoke College in school history.

Through two Guilford seasons, Colley ranks third in school history with 189 career points on 120 goals and 69 assists. She stands second among the school’s all-time leaders in assists, seventh in goals and 11th in caused turnovers (44).

Keene returns to the First Team All-ODAC team and makes her all-region debut after collecting a career-high 48 goals, 11 assists, 59 points, 67 ground balls and 31 caused turnovers from her midfield position. She leads the ODAC in ground balls, draw controls (113) and caused turnovers. Her league-high 6.65 draws per game stand 15th nationally. She also sits among the ODAC leaders in goals (7th) and points (10th) per game. Her 67 ground balls rank fourth in school history and are the most by a Quaker since 2001.

Keene scored a career-high six points in wins over Greensboro, Catawba and Lynchburg College. She also netted a personal-best five goals in victories over Catawba, Lynchburg and Roanoke. Keene had a season-high 14 draw controls versus Catawba, the second-highest figure in school history. Her career-high nine ground balls in consecutive tilts at Sweet Briar College and Randolph College also stand second all-time at Guilford.

Keene enters her junior season as Guilford’s career leader in draw controls (241). After 35 career games, she is eighth in caused turnovers (48) and 18th in points (90).

Mettler is Guilford’s first all-region goaltender and its first two-time First Team All-ODAC netminder. The senior ranks 25th nationally with 158 saves and a .500 saves percentage. Her 9.29 goals against average is 47th in the land, second in the ODAC and second in school history. She also collected 46 ground balls and caused seven turnovers. Mettler made at least 10 saves in nine different games, including a season-high 16 stops in the comeback win over Lynchburg. The Quakers’ lone four-year letter winner, Mettler set the school standards for career goals against average (11.68) and wins by a goalie (31). She ranks second with 524 saves and 18th with 122 ground balls in her 58-game tenure.

Fowler, Guilford’s top defender, was one of just two rookies named to the first-team all-conference unit. She finished fourth on the team and ninth in the league with 47 ground balls. Her 20 caused turnovers were third on the team and 14th in school history. She tied the school record April 10 by forcing seven miscues in the Quakers’ road win over Hollins University and picked up a game- and career-high seven ground balls in the triumph over Bridgewater.

Becca Colley, Lily’s twin sister and a three-year starting midfielder, earned her first all-conference commendation in the finest season of her career. She totaled 43 points on 33 goals and 10 assists, plus 54 ground balls, 57 draw controls and 23 caused turnovers. Colley is fourth in the league in ground balls, seventh in caused turnovers and 11th in draw controls. She scored a career-high five goals in Guilford’s win over Bridgewater and contributed a personal-best six points in road wins over Sweet Briar and Randolph. Colley has moved into third place among Guilford’s career leaders in caused turnovers (70). She is sixth in draw controls (133) and 11th in ground balls (138).

De Perlinghi, a two-year starting defender, was a third-team pick after gathering 29 ground balls and forcing 14 turnovers in 17 games. She had a career-high four pickups at Randolph and caused two turnovers in three separate games.

First-year head coach Sarah Lamphier’s club enjoyed the finest season in team history. Guilford ripped off a school-record 14-game winning streak and compiled a 15-2 overall record, the best in Guilford history. Picked fifth in the league’s preseason poll, the Quakers posted a perfect 10-0 conference mark, the first in ODAC history. Guilford set or tied 15 school standards and earned the program’s first NCAA Division III South Region ranking. Lamphier could return as many as 13 letter winners in 2014.