Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell Places Six on All-Patriot League Men's Lax Team, Doyle Named Rookie of Year
4/23/2013 8:00:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse
April 23, 2013
LEWISBURG, Pa. –The 11-3 Bucknell men's lacrosse team fared very well in the All-Patriot League voting, which was announced Tuesday by the league office. The Bison had six all-conference selections, including First Team midfielders David Dickson (Greenwich, Conn./Greenwich) and Thomas Flibotte (Cohasset, Mass./Deerfield Academy), and attackman Sean Doyle (Lloyd Harbor, N.Y./Cold Spring Harbor) earned the 2013 Patriot League Rookie of the Year Award.
While the sophomore Dickson and the freshman Flibotte were named to the All-Patriot League First Team, four Bison veterans made the Second Team: senior attackman Chase Bailey (Fairfield, Conn./Fairfield Prep), senior defenseman Mike Huffner (Elmira, N.Y./Notre Dame), junior defenseman Jackson Place (Wayne, Pa./Episcopal Academy) and senior faceoff specialist Ryan Gutowski (Owings Mills, Md./Calvert Hall).
Doyle is the seventh Bucknell player to earn Rookie of the Year honors in the 23-year history of the Patriot League. He joins Charlie Streep (2009), Austin Winter (2007), Joe Mele (2006), Chris Cara (2002), Wes Fetchet (2001) and Ed Joffe (1996) on that list.
A three-time Patriot League Rookie of the Week this season, Doyle has 25 goals and 14 assists for 39 points in 11 games this season. He ranks sixth in the Patriot League in both goals and assists and seventh in total points. Chris Baxa of Mercer (41) and Jack Bobzien of Hartford (40) are the only freshmen with more points than Doyle in all of Division I lacrosse.
Doyle missed two games due to injury, but has recorded at least one goal in each of the other 12, including five-point efforts in Patriot League wins over Colgate, Lafayette and Holy Cross. Doyle logged three goals and an assist in a big 9-8 win over No. 2 Cornell, and he had a goal and three assists in a win over No. 13 Drexel.
After earning Second Team All-Patriot League honors as a freshman last season, Dickson moved up to the First Team in 2013. He has been one of the top playmaking midfielders in the league this spring and has seven goals and a league-high 42 assists so far. Dickson has at least one assist in every game this season and multiple assists in 13 out of 14.
Dickson's 3.0 assists-per-game average is third-best nationally, and his 42 assists also mark a new school record. Cara set the previous record with 40 helpers in 2004. Only a sophomore, Dickson already ranks seventh on Bucknell's career list with 68 assists over the last two seasons. That total is the highest among all sophomores nationwide.
Dickson recorded four assists in Bucknell's game-ending 8-1 run in Saturday's 13-8 victory at Colgate, which clinched the No. 2 seed for this weekend's tournament. He posted five assists in a league win over Lafayette and also had four against Bryant, Albany and Holy Cross. In that win at No. 20 Albany, Dickson also scored three goals, giving him a career-high seven points.
Flibotte became the first Bucknell freshman since Streep in 2009 to earn First Team All-Patriot League honors. He is one of only two freshmen on this year's team, joining Army faceoff specialist Alex Daly, who also made the First Team.
Flibotte has unleashed his powerful outside shot to the tune of 29 goals this season, fifth-most in the Patriot League and most among first-year players. He got out to a terrific start, scoring 25 goals in the first nine games of the year. That included a six-goal effort in the win over No. 13 Drexel, which tied the Bucknell freshman scoring record. Flibotte also scored four times in the win at No. 20 Albany and had three of Bucknell's seven goals in a 7-4 win over No. 13 Massachusetts.
Twice this season Flibotte earned Patriot League Rookie of the Week honors, and he was named Patriot League Player of the Week on March 18 after combining for nine goals against Drexel and Lafayette.
The Bison claimed two of the three defensemen spots on the All-Patriot League Second Team, as Huffner earned his third career all-conference citation while Place picked up his first.
Huffner was a First Team All-Patriot League pick in both 2011 and 2012, and he was this year's Patriot League Preseason Defensive Player of the Year. Huffner is in the midst of another outstanding season this spring, and he and Place have helped the Bison rank near the top of the national leaderboard in goals-against all year. Currently, Bucknell ranks 12th in the country in scoring defense at 8.2 goals allowed per game, a terrific figure considering that the schedule has been littered with some of the most prolific offenses in the nation. Albany (1st), Cornell (2nd) and Drexel (8th) all rank in the top-10 in scoring, and Bucknell defeated all three of those teams while holding them under their season scoring average.
Huffner has 28 ground balls and 20 caused turnovers this season, while Place has 36 ground balls and 24 caused turnovers.
Bailey has hit the 30-goal plateau for the first time in his career, and he was rewarded by the league's head coaches with his first all-conference citation. Bailey has scored in every game, including 11 multi-goal performances, and has 30 goals and nine assists for 39 points on the season. Of those 30 goals, perhaps the biggest was his game-winning tally with 1:00 to play in Bucknell's 9-8 win at No. 2 Cornell on March 19.
Bailey scored at least two goals in every Patriot League game this season, including hat tricks against Holy Cross, Army and Lehigh on consecutive weekends. He enters the Patriot League Tournament with 90 goals and 30 assists for 120 points in his career. The 90 goals are tied for 10th-most in Bucknell history.
Gutowski has come on strong as the season has progressed, and his .524 faceoff percentage ranks third in the Patriot League. He has won at least half of his draws in seven of the last 10 games, and in his last six games he is converting at a 58.3-percent clip. Gutowski went 11-for-16 with eight ground balls in the big win at No. 2 Cornell, and last week at Colgate he went 15-for-22 with eight more ground balls. He logged a career-high nine ground balls against Drexel, and picked up eight in five other games. His 68 ground balls on the season lead the team and rank fifth in the Patriot League.
Gutowski's 267 career faceoff wins are third-most in Bucknell history, and his 137 career ground balls rank ninth.
Gutowski has now become an All-Patriot League performer in two different sports. He was also a three-year starting punter on the Bison football team, and he earned First Team All-Patriot League accolades in 2011.
Army's John Glesener was named the Patriot League Offensive Player of the Year and his teammate Brendan Buckley was picked as the Defensive Player of the Year. Matt Poillon of Lehigh is the Goalkeeper of the Year, and Holy Cross' Jim Morrissey is the Coach of the Year.
Bucknell is ranked 13th in this week's USILA Coaches' Poll and 16th in the Nike/Inside Lacrosse Media Poll. The Bison will play third-seeded Army at 4:30 p.m. in the Patriot League Tournament semifinals at Lehigh's Ulrich Sports Complex. The game will be televised live on CBS Sports Network.
