Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell Men's Lax Nets School-Record Six First Team All-Patriot League Selections
4/21/2009 8:00:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse
April 21, 2009
LEWISBURG, Pa. - After finishing the Patriot League regular-season with a perfect 6-0 record, the Bucknell men's lacrosse team has been rewarded with a league-high and program-record six First Team All-Patriot League selections. Junior attackman Austin Winter (Boonton Twp., N.J./Mountain Lakes), senior midfielder Perry Menzies (Upperco, Md./Hereford), senior defenseman Billy Haire (Darien, Conn./Darien) and senior goalie Nick Sciubba (Sea Cliff, N.Y./Salisbury School) all earned their third consecutive all-league plaques, while sophomore faceoff specialist Jake Clarke (Cos Cob, Conn./Greenwich) and freshman midfielder Charlie Streep (New Canaan, Conn./Loomis-Chaffee) were honored for the first time.
Bucknell claimed six total all-conference selections, all of them first-teamers. Navy had the most total selections with seven, three on the first team and four on the second team. Lehigh had two first-team picks and Colgate and Army one each.
The Patriot League will announce the major award winners on Wednesday.
Winter became only the second Bucknell player in the Patriot League era to earn three consecutive first-team all-league nods. The other was Chris Cara from 2003-05.
Only a junior, Winter is having another magnificent year at attack for the Bison. He leads the team in scoring with 41 points on 13 goals and 28 assists. The assist total leads the Patriot League and ranks fifth nationally, while his point total ranks sixth in the Patriot League. Winter has a six-point game against Lehigh this season and five-point showings against Duke, Denver and Holy Cross. He has been especially hot down the stretch, with five goals and 15 assists in his last five games.
Winter has 142 career points, which already ranks eighth on Bucknell's all-time scoring list (one point out of fifth). His 90 career assists rank third all-time at Bucknell and eighth in Patriot League history.
Haire makes the first team after being named the Patriot League Preseason Defensive Player of the Year and an Inside Lacrosse Preseason Honorable Mention All-American prior to the campaign. Previously, Haire was a first-team selection in 2007 and a second-team honoree last season.
Bucknell's stopper on defense, Haire is regularly assigned to the opposition's top attackman. The senior has never missed a start in four years at Bucknell, and in 2009 he is a two-time Patriot League Defensive Player of the Week. He leads a Bison defense that ranks second in the Patriot League and 14th in the nation in scoring defense, allowing 7.93 goals per game.
Haire, who was elected co-captain during the offseason, ranks second on Bucknell's career ground ball list with 160. He is just 15 shy of the school record, set by Ryan Goodman from 2002-05.
Haire is the first Bison defenseman to earn three all-conference citations since Blaise Fletcher from 2002-04.
Menzies and Sciubba were both Second Team All-Patriot League picks in 2007 and 2008, and now both have moved on to the first team for the first time.
After a slow start, Menzies' blistering outside shot has been in top form in recent weeks. The senior middie did not register a point in the first four games of the year, but since then he has set career highs for both goals (20) and points (22). He had four goals and one assist in wins over both Lehigh and Lafayette, as well as three-goal games against Denver and Air Force. He was the Patriot League Offensive Player of the Week on March 16.
Menzies enters the Patriot League Tournament with 56 career goals.
Sciubba earned his third Patriot League Goalie of the Week honor of 2009 on Monday after a 13-save performance in Saturday's regular-season title-clinching win over Colgate. Sciubba has started 11 of the team's 14 games this season and has a 5-4 record with a .559 save percentage and 8.71 goals-against average. He ranks second in the Patriot League in goals-against average and third in save percentage.
Sciubba has logged 12 or more saves five times this season, including a career-high 16 against No. 4 Notre Dame. He also had 12 saves with only six goals against in a big 8-6 win over Army on Apr. 4. Sciubba, who transferred to Bucknell from Massachusetts prior to his sophomore year, ranks ninth on the school's career saves list with 357.
Clarke has authored quite a story in his second year with the Orange & Blue. A former walk-on who played some as a defensive midfielder late in his freshman year, Clarke made the transition to faceoff man during the offseason. The move has been a resounding success, as Clarke currently ranks No. 8 in the nation in faceoff success at 58.7 percent (141 for 240).
Clarke briefly led the nation in faceoff percentage after a school-record 20-for-21 performance against Penn State two weeks ago. He has won more than half of his attempts in 10 of his 13 appearances (he missed one game due to injury), including eight in a row at one point. His 141 faceoff wins this season rank second all-time at Bucknell, just four shy of the school record set by Ryan Goodman in 2004. The single-season record for percentage is 58.3 by Alex Rudis in 1999.
As a byproduct of his faceoff prowess, Clarke is also having a record-setting year in terms of ground balls. He has already broken the Bucknell single-season record with 89 ground balls, and he is just outside the top 10 on the Patriot League single-season list. Clarke registered a school-record 13 ground balls in the Penn State game and had 10 more against Colgate.
Streep has certainly been a welcome addition to the Bucknell midfield this season. A first-line middie all season, he has racked up 23 goals and five assists for 28 points thus far. The 23 goals are eighth-most in the league, and the most among all league freshmen.
Streep earned his league-record fifth Patriot League Rookie of the Week citation on Monday after scoring a career-high five goals in the big win over Colgate. Prior to this season, no player in Patriot League history had recorded more than three rookie of the week honors. He also had a four-goal game against Towson and three each against Ohio State, Lafayette and Holy Cross. His biggest goal of the year came in Bucknell's 8-7 win over Navy on Feb. 28, when he scored the game-winning goal just before the final horn sounded.
Streep is the lone freshman on the all-league first team. In fact, he joins Winter as the only Bucknell players ever to earn First Team All-Patriot League honors in his first year.
Joining the six Bison on the first team were Colgate's Brandon Corp and Lehigh's Ricky Cornetta at attack; Navy's Patrick Moran at midfield; Navy's Geoff Leone at defensive midfield; and Army's Bill Henderson, Lehigh's Dan Honeywell and Navy's Andy Tormey at close defense.
The second team was comprised of Army's Jason Peyer, Colgate's Kevin Colleluori and Navy's Tim Paul at attack; Army's Kevin LoRusso, Colgate's Nick Monastero and Navy's Joe Lennon at midfield; Navy's Frankie Coppola at faceoff specialist; Army's Tim Henderson and Colgate's Mike Crown at defensive midfield; Colgate's Greg Perkins, Lehigh's Evan Guerrero and Navy's Jaren Woeppel at close defense; and Lafayette's Jeff Canfield at goalie.
Bucknell is ranked No. 16 this week in the USILA Coaches' Poll. The Bison are the top seed and host for the 2009 Patriot League Tournament, which will be held this Friday and Sunday at Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium. Bucknell will face fourth-seeded Army at 3 p.m. Friday in the first semifinal matchup, with No. 2 Colgate and No. 3 Navy squaring off in the second semi at 5:45 p.m. The winners will meet for the championship on Sunday at 3 p.m. All three tourney contests will be televised live on CBS College Sports.
