Men's Lacrosse Announces 2015 Award Winners
Sep 29 | Men's Lacrosse
PISCATAWAY, N.J. - The Rutgers men's lacrosse program announced its 2015 individual award winners Sunday at the team's annual banquet. The banquet was held in conjunction with the team's Alumni Game Sunday afternoon at the F3 Turf Field. The event was part of Rutgers Homecoming weekend, which included the induction of Rutgers lacrosse alumnus Keith Cromwell ('01) into the Rutgers Athletics Hall of Fame on Friday evening.
"Homecoming weekend is always exciting to welcome all our alumni back on campus with their families," head coach Brian Brecht said. "Friday night was kicked off with the Hall Of Fame dinner, followed by a great turnout by our alumni for the football tailgate and reception during the game in the AD suite and party deck area. Our banquet and alumni game capped off a great weekend for Rutgers Lacrosse as it was fun having all the young alumni back to get up and down with our current team."
The program recognized a successful 2015 season at the year-end banquet, which followed the first season of competition in the Big Ten Conference. RU had one USILA All-American, three All-Big Ten selections, 14 members of the Big Ten All-Academic Team, two Scholar All-Americans, three Honor Society members, and placed 18 student-athletes onto the Dean's List.
The Scholar Athlete Award, awarded to the member of the team with the highest GPA, was presented to Campbell Sode, who won the award for the fourth consecutive year after maintaining a perfect 4.0 cumulative GPA for his collegiate career. The Wayne Duke Postgraduate Scholarship recipient was also awarded the Robert Collett Trophy, which is given in recognition of the member of the squad who displays the best mental and physical spirit.
Scott Bieda brought home two awards from the annual banquet. The rising senior captain received the Knight Cup, which is given annually to the player who has played the game of lacrosse to the best of his ability, and who has, by example, inspired or led his teammates both on and off the field and who, above all, has consistently demonstrated the qualities of unselfishness and loyalty to his team and Rutgers University. He also earned the Alfred Sasser Trophy for the second consecutive season, leading the squad with 28 assists. Bieda also paced the squad with 30 goals and 58 points in the 2015 campaign.
Joe Nardella was given the William Miller Trophy, awarded to that team member who, by his own example, has served as an inspiration to his teammates and made the greatest contribution to the team during the season. The 205th All-American from Rutgers lacrosse, Nardella was one of the top face-off men in the nation, winning 223 out of 333 faceoffs (67.0 winning percentage).
Brian Goss was honored with the Doc Peterson Award in recognition of his balance of both academics and athletics and also putting the success of the program and his teammates ahead of himself. In his senior campaign, Goss scored 21 goals and collected 26 ground balls while serving as a team captain.
The Frederick Fitch Trophy, bestowed to the varsity letter-winner who, through personal effort to develop his lacrosse ability, showed the greatest improvement during the season, was presented to Zack Sikora. A long-stick midfielder, Sikora had a breakout season with six goals and 48 ground balls, and was an All-Big Ten honoree.
The Al Twitchell Award, given to the freshman who was seen as the most valuable to the team, was presented to Jules Heningburg. The Maplewood, N.J., native was third on the team with 21 goals and 29 points in his first collegiate season.
Alex Bronzo was given the Collins Award, awarded to the Rutgers lacrosse team member who had the greatest increase in GPA.
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