Syracuse Lacrosse: Ben Williams named ACC Defensive Player of the Week

The ACC named Ben Williams its Defensive Player of the Week following his performances against the Cornell Big Red and North Carolina Tar Heels.

It is the sixth time this season that a Syracuse Orange player has been given a weekly award by the ACC and the fourth time Ben Williams has won a weekly award over the last three seasons.

Versus UNC, Williams went head-to-head against Stephen Kelly in each duel at the X taking 15-25. Most importantly, Williams went 8-4 in the second half and then won the overtime faceoff to give Syracuse the ball in the extra period. Williams’ faceoff wins in the second half allowed Syracuse to make a big comeback against the Heels. Against a trio of faceoff guys on Cornell, Williams went 19-25 while picking up 11 groundballs. In the third period Williams took seven of eight from the Big Red while going 11 of three in the second half.

Prior to this week, Williams sported a .533 faceoff winning percentage. In the last two games he had a .680 winning percentage leaving him with a .565 percentage on the year. That’s quite a one week turnaround.

Williams has 130 wins this season which is 71 behind the tenth spot in wins in a season in SU history. He is currently first in career attempts with 983 and just four faceoff wins behind Chris Cercy for first all time in Syracuse history for career wins. With his career .629 faceoff winning percentage he is fourth in the SU history in career winning percentage.