The Tewaaraton Foundation announced its watch list for the 2015 Tewaaraton Trophy on Thrusday. The award honors the best male and female lacrosse player in the country. The watch list is comprised of 50 men and 50 women at the collegiate level. The Foundation has named have four men and one women from Syracuse University to the list. Syracuse and Notre Dame are the only two schools with at least four men's players named to the watch list.
On the women's side, junior Kayla Treanor was placed on the list. A finalist for the 2014 Tewaaraton Trophy, Treanor currently leads the NCAA in scoring with 25 points.
The four men's players named to the list should be of no surprise to Orange fans. All three starting attackmen made the list along with defenseman Brandon Mullins. The Texas native has 68 career groundballs and ranks sixth all-time in career caused turnovers at Syracuse with 35.
Kevin Rice, a 2014 nominee, is on the precipice of entering the top ten in career assists at Syracuse having 84. Rice also has 66 goals in his four years with the Orange. Fellow senior Randy Staats, a two-time NJCAA Offensive Player of the Year in his two years at Onondaga Community College, also made the list. Staats had an impressive 33 goals and 23 assists in his first year at SU. Dylan Donahue is the fourth player from the men's team. As a junior, Donahue has 75 goals and 35 assists in his 39 career games.
Although this list comes out in the beginning of the year, it is not hard to imagine any of the three Syracuse attackmen taking home this piece of hardware. The odds are not with Mullins however, especially considering that in the fourteen years that the Award has been handed out, no defensive player has ever won it. Syracuse has had a player win the award on three previous occasions with Mike Powell winning it in 2002 and 2004 and Mike Leveille taking it in 2008. Only the University of Virginia has had as many previous winners of the Award as Syracuse. Last year the Foundation broke precedent by awarding two winners on the men's side, Lyle and Miles Thompson.