Blog from Todd Carton
By my rough count, the Big Ten has handed out 84 weekly player of the week or co-player of the week awards – 46 men’s and 38 women’s – in its inaugural lacrosse season. Because of their respective start dates, Maryland wasn’t eligible for four of the men’s awards and six for the women. This week, two Terrapin women and one man won conference player of the week plaudits bringing the men’s total to 12 and the women’s to 18.
Before I get to the individuals honored this week, I want you to think about that. Maryland’s men’s players have won 28.6 percent of the awards since they began play and the women have won over 56 percent of those honors.
On the men’s side, where the conference recognizes Offensive. Defensive, Freshman and Specialist of the Week, Maryland has generally won a defensive player award. In fact, until this week, a Terrapin had won that honor in seven consecutive weeks. Although that string ended this week, Jay Carlson was named the B1G Offensive Player of the Week.
Coach John Tillman calls Carlson one of the smartest players he’s ever coached and he has also said that his senior is generally good for at least one highlight reel play every game. Perhaps the highlight reel play in Carlson’s arsenal this week was the game winner in overtime at Ohio State that gave the Terrapins at least a share of the first ever B1G Men’s Lacrosse Championship.
Of course, Carlson also scored Maryland’s first two goals in that game and assisted on Bryan Cole’s score near the end of the first half. Carlson leads the Big Ten with four game winners this season. He now has 81 career goals tying him for 20th all time at Maryland.
The Big Ten doesn’t award a Specialist of the Week in women’s lacrosse so those honors are confined to Offensive, Defensive and Freshman of the Week. Keeping in mind that Maryland has been eligible for only 10 of the 12 weeks this season, the presence of Megan Whittle raises the question of whether winning an award can simply become part of the routine.
In claiming the Freshman of the Week Award for the sixth time, Whittle scored hat tricks in both Maryland wins last week. At Johns Hopkins, she scored all three of her goals in the second half while against Michigan, she completed all of her scoring in the first half. Whittle has chalked up nine hat tricks thus far this season and lead the Terps with 55 goals. She is also tied for the lead in the B1G with her average of 3.50 goals per game.
Joining Whittle as an honoree this week, is midfielder Taylor Cummings. Lest anyone doubt that Cummings is the best all-around player in NCAA women’s lacrosse, here are the statistical categories in which the four time B1G Offensive Player of the Week leads the best team in the nation: Points (77); Assists (28); Draw Controls (111); Ground Balls (33); Caused Turnovers (26). She is second in goals with 49.
Nationally, Cummings is tied for 12th in goals scored, tied for 15th in assists, 2nd in points, 4th in draw controls, and tied for 28th in caused turnovers per game. Playing very little of the second half in the game against Michigan, her week’s work in two games included 15 draw controls, three ground balls and two caused turnovers. And she managed to add five goals and three assists as well.
What I’ve neglected to mention thus far is that Cummings won her fourth Offensive Player of the Week on April 13th. Her award this week, which she shared with Penn State goalie Emi Smith was as co-Defensive Player of the Week. Take that B1G!
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