Hopkinton, Massachusetts, junior attack earns weekly honor for first time in career after collecting NE10 Player of the Week honors for third time
IWLCA April 29 Players of the Week
EASTON, Mass. (April 19, 2022) – Stonehill College junior attack Lydia Rudden has been named the Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) Division II Offensive Player of the Year the organization announced today.
Rudden earns the national award for the first time in her career after being named the Northeast-10 Conference Player of the Week for the third time this season on Monday. She is the first Stonehill student-athlete to collect IWLCA weekly honors since recent graduate and current assistant coach Bailey Grant, '21 was named the organization's Division II Defensive Player of the Week on April 7, 2021.
Rudden led the Stonehill attack in a 2-0 week as she totaled 18 points with seven goals and 11 assists, also contributing four ground balls and a caused turnover, converting 2-of-3 free-position shot attempts. She opened the week with eight points on three goals and five assists in Wednesday's 15-13 comeback win at No. 12/14 Pace University, scoring the go-ahead goal with two-minutes to play as the Skyhawks closed the game with a 5-0 run to erase its second three-goal deficit of the second half for the win. Rudden then matched her career-high with ten points on four goals and six assists in Saturday's 15-3 win at Saint Michael's College, chipping in a team and career-high matching four ground balls.
Rudden, who earned NE10 Player of the Week honors for the third time this season on Monday, has started all 12 games for Stonehill this spring and leads the NE10 in scoring with 75 points, having dished out an NE10-best 48 assists to go with 27 goals that rank fourth on the team and 20th in the Conference. She has converted 7-of-17 free-position shots and chipped in with 15 ground balls, four caused turnovers and two draw controls for the season. Rudden ranks fourth nationally in Division II in assists, while her 3.83 assists per game ranks second in the country and she ranks 18th in scoring and fifth with 6.08 points per game.
Rudden earns IWLCA Division II Player of the Week honors for the first time in her career (PHOTO BY Crystal Ayn Photography) |
Rudden's 48 assists are tied for second on Stonehill's all-time single season list along with her older sister, Brooke Rudden, '15 who also dished out 48 assists in 2015. The duo is 18 shy of the single-season record of 66 assists by Jenny McGrath, '06 in 2006. Rudden has dished out a career-high ten points in two games this season, including the Skyhawks 20-14 season-opening win at Molloy College in which she matched the program's single-game record with eight assists. She has recorded multiple points in all 12 games this season and 18-straight games dating back to last year, dishing out multiple assists in ten-straight games and scoring multiple goals in three-straight.
Rudden, selected as Stonehill's Spring Rookie of the Year in 2020, has started 24 of the 25 games she has played over her collegiate career. She joined Sullivan in the program's 100-point club in a win over then No. 25 The College of Saint Rose on April 5 and has now totaled 121 points with 44 goals and 71 assists – a total that is tied for eighth on the programs' all-time list. Rudden, who has been named to the NE10 Academic Honor Roll and Athletic Director's Honor Roll every semester to date, has converted 9-of-25 free-position shots and totaled 27 ground balls and five caused turnovers for her career. She was recognized earlier this month with her second Saint Thomas Aquinas, Patron Saint of Students, Medal for having the highest cumulative grade point average on the team.
Stonehill (10-2, 8-1 NE10), up one more spot to No. 14 in this week's IWLCA Division II poll and two spots to No. 11 in the USA Lacrosse Magazine Division II poll, opens the final two weeks of the regular season in which it will play its remaining four games at W.B. Mason Stadium with two games this week. After hosting Southern Connecticut State University tomorrow at 7 p.m., the Skyhawks will host No. 2-ranked Adelphi University for it Alumnae Game on Saturday at 1 p.m.
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