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The Tewaaraton Foundation announced the five finalists for the highest award for both men's and women's lacrosse on Thursday, and Syracuse seniors Kevin Rice and Kayla Treanor each made the cut.
It's the fourth consecutive year a Syracuse women's lacrosse player has been a finalist for the award, and the sixth time in the last eight years a men's player has made the finalist list for the school.
Rice, the 2015 ACC Offensive Player of the Year, and ACC Tournament MVP, led the ACC in points per game (4.85) and assists per game (2.77). His 29 goals, 39 assists and 68 points are actually slightly down from last year's 80 point effort, but he leads both the Orange and the ACC with five game-winning goals, and is ranked third in assists and sixth in points, nationally.
Rice will be up against last season's co-winner in Albany's Lyles Thompson (who split the award with brother Miles last year), and is the favorite again this year. Also in the running are Denver attack Wesley Berg, Notre Dame attack Matt Kavanagh and Duke midfielder Myles Jones.
Treanor is also the 2015 ACC Offensive Player of the Year and ACC Tournament MVP on the women's side, after two game-winning goals in the Orange's run to the ACC Championship, and is a finalist for the second-consecutive year. She not only leads the team with 53 goals and 80 points, but she's also racked up 26 ground balls and 15 caused turnovers. Last year, Treanor and Alyssa Murray were finalists for the award.
Like Rice, Treanor goes up against last year's winner in Taylor Cummings from Maryland, the top player from the top-seeded Terps, as well as Florida's Shannon Gilroy, Boston College's Sarah Mannelly and Notre Dame defender Barbara Sullivan.
The Tewaaraton Award is given annually to the top men's and women's lacrosse players, and unlike many awards, actually does include postseason play as part of its criteria. While no women's player has won the award for the Orange so far, the men's team has taken home the trophy three times, with Mikey Powell doing so twice - in 2002 and 2004, and Mike Leveille earning the most recent honor in 2008.