Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell Rookies Spring, Doyle Earn Patriot League Weekly Lax Honors
3/4/2013 7:00:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse
March 4, 2013
LEWISBURG, Pa. - Bucknell freshmen Sean Doyle (Lloyd Harbor, N.Y./Cold Spring Harbor) and Alex Spring (New York, N.Y./Western Reserve Academy) both earned Patriot League awards on Monday after playing lead roles the men's lacrosse team's 11-2 Patriot League victory over Navy over the weekend. Spring was named Patriot League Defensive Player of the Week, while Doyle earned Rookie of the Week honors. It was the first career awards for both players.
Bucknell controlled play at both ends of the field in Saturday's Patriot League opener. Defensively, the Bison forced 22 turnovers and limited Navy to 14 total shots, just seven of which were on goal. The Bison won the ground ball battle 39-24, converted 15 of 16 clears and won 9 of 17 faceoffs. By dominating the time-of-possession stats, Bucknell racked up a 57-14 shot advantage, including a 29-4 margin in the second half.
Spring helped pace the stifling defensive effort from his long-stick defensive midfield position. He led all players in the game with five caused turnovers and picked up six ground balls. Both figures were career highs. The Bison pitched a shutout for the game's final 51 minutes, and they finished the contest on a 10-0 run after trailing 2-1 early on.
Spring also plays one of the wing positions on faceoffs, and he helped the Bison win the majority of the draws against a good faceoff team in Navy. He now leads the team in both ground balls (20) and caused turnovers (9) in four games this season.
Doyle was one of the offensive stars in the Navy game. A starting attackman, Doyle recorded his first collegiate hat trick and also handed out an assist to make it a four-point afternoon.
It was a 2-2 game at the start of the second quarter when Doyle had a hand in three straight Bison goals to break the game open. First he assisted on Chase Bailey's go-ahead coach 3:20 into the second period. Later he scored consecutive goals 3:03 apart to give Bucknell a 5-2 halftime lead. Doyle added an insurance tally in the fourth quarter.
Doyle has started all four games at attack and now has seven goals and three assists for 10 points on the season.
This is the second straight week that Bucknell garnered both the defensive player and rookie of the week honors. Last week Jackson Place earned the Defensive Player of the Week award, while Thomas Flibotte was cited as the Rookie of the Week in two of the first three weeks of the season.
Bucknell is 3-1 on the year, with the wins coming against Delaware, Bryant and Navy. The Bison will play at home again on Saturday against Massachusetts at noon at Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium.
