WASHINGTON – The Massachusetts graduate student duo of Fiona McGowan and Audra Tosone have repeated their title as the Atlantic 10 Women's Lacrosse Offensive and Defensive Players of the Year. Richmond junior Grace Muldoon has been named the Midfielder of the Year, while Saint Joseph's senior Jorden Concordia becomes the first ever Goalkeeper of the Year. After winning Rookie of the Week five times this season, Davidson's Jenna Skibbe was selected as the Rookie of the Year. For the second year in a row, Massachusetts' Jana Drummond was chosen as the Coach of the Year.
The Atlantic 10 released the six superlative awards along with the All-Conference, All-Rookie and All-Academic teams Wednesday prior to the 2024 A-10 Women’s Lacrosse Championship, which begins Thursday at Rooney Field in Pittsburgh, Pa. The major honors, All-Conference teams and All-Rookie team were voted on by the A-10 women’s lacrosse head coaches while the All-Academic team was selected by the women’s lacrosse communications directors.
A Westwood, Mass. native, McGowan earned the A-10 Offensive Player of the Year honor for the second consecutive year after finishing the regular season ranked among the top-five nationally in both assists and assists per game. The attacker’s 53 assists this season puts McGowan three away from setting a new UMass single season program record while her 124 career assists ranks third-most all-time. The two-time first-team all-conference selection posted a team-leading 80 points on the season, including 10 in a win over UConn to tie for the most in a single game by an A-10 player this season. The graduate student finished with multiple assists in 13 games this season while recording seven three times in wins over La Salle, Davidson, and UConn. McGowan was also named to the A-10 First-Team and all-academic squads. This is the 12th time a UMass player has been named Offensive Player of the Year.
Tosone was named the A-10 Defensive Player of the Year for the second straight season after anchoring a UMass defense that ranked among the top-30 nationally in scoring defense and caused turnovers per game. The defender became the second player in program history to record 100 or more caused turnovers in a career and is five away from setting a new program record heading into postseason play. Tosone was twice named the A-10 Defensive Player of the Week this season and caused multiple turnovers in nine games, including six against Davidson and four against both VCU and George Washington. The Walpole, Mass. native also earned a spot on the first-team all-conference and all-academic teams. This is the seventh time a UMass player has been named Defensive Player of the Year.
Muldoon has started every game of her junior campaign. The midfielder sands atop of all positional statistics within the conference, ranking third on the Spiders team in assists (17), third on the team in points (48) and fourth in goals (31), while standing third on the team in draw controls (49) and contributing 26 ground balls and 15 caused turnovers. The Bethesda, Md. native stands fifth in the A-10 and top 60 nationally, shooting 53.4-percent and has helped lead a Spiders team that ranks top-25 nationally in assists per game, caused turnovers per game, free position percentage and groundballs per game. This is the sixth time a Richmond player has been named Midfielder Player of the Year.
Concordia becomes the first player to win the award after the A-10 introduced Goalkeeper of the Year for the 2024 season. Also earning First Team All-Conference honors, the Webster, N.Y. native ranks third in the country in save percentage (.532), her 11.0 saves per game ranking fifth in the NCAA. Concordia is one of just 14 active goalkeepers to record more than 500 saves (550), sitting seventh among active players. The senior is just the second Hawk to eclipse 500 saves in program history, holding three of the four highest save totals in single-season history for St. Joe’s. Concordia has recorded 11 games with 10 or more saves, while averaging 14 saves in the two wins over ranked programs. Concordia added nine caused turnovers and 37 ground balls, moving to fourth all-time in SJU history with 132 in her career.
Skibbe is the just second Wildcat in program history to earn the A-10’s Rookie of the Year honor after Julianne Carey captured the award for the first time in 2021. On the year, Skibbe is second on the team in scoring with 41 goals while ranking third among all NCAA Division I freshmen in total goals and goals per game (2.73). A native of Lake Mary, Fla., she captured five A-10 Rookie of the Week honors during the regular season, and recorded 11 multi-goal games including a pair of six-goal performances.
Drummond was named the Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year for the second time in two seasons after leading the Minutewomen to an A-10 regular season championship. Drummond helped UMass secure its fifth straight unbeaten season in A-10 play and its 13th in a row as the Minutewomen finished the season on an 11-game winning streak. As a team, UMass ranks atop Division I in draw controls per game and is second in assists per game at 9.50 and fourth in points per game with 25.25. Drummond’s squad also ranks among the top-15 nationally in multiple offensive categories, including scoring offense, scoring margin, and shots on goal per game.
Joining McGowan and Tosone on the All-Conference First Team are fellow Massachusetts teammates Jordan Dean (midfielder) and Kassidy Morris (attacker) while Muldoon is flanked by Richmond teammates Colleen Quinn (attacker). Concordia is joined by her fellow Hawk Bonnie Yu (midfielder). The Davidson duo of midfielder Allie Hartnett and defender Noelle Cegielski (defender) were also selected to the first team as was George Mason attacker Shannon Tuozzo and St. Bonaventure defender Brit Colangelo.
The All-Conference Second Team features Davidson’s Josie Lambert (attacker), Duquesne's Mackenzie Leszczynski (midfielder), George Washington's Stella Ray (defender), Massachusetts' Layton Nass (midfielder), Catrina Tobin (goalkeeper) and Charlotte Wilmoth (attacker), Richmond's Hannah Custer (defender) and Maggie Jordan (midfielder), St. Bonaventure's Brooke Piper (midfielder), Saint Joseph's Bella Micelli (defender) and Maddie Yoder (attacker), and VCU's Casey Murray (defender).
The All-Rookie team stars Skibbe as well as her teammates Kella McGrail, Brooke Ross and Kayla Joyce. Also on the All-Rookie team are Daniella Jimenez (George Mason), Ava Connaughton (Massachusetts), Lil Hancock (Massachusetts), Abby Francioli (Richmond), Olivia McCloskey (Saint Joseph’s), Megan Sanelli (Saint Joseph’s), Olivia Peeler (St. Bonaventure) and Rachel Koeneke (VCU)
The All-Academic team includes McGowan, Tosone, Quinn and Concordia as well as Hanna Pawela (Duquesne), Morgan Gunn (George Mason), Katie Johnson (La Salle), Becca Sturtz (Richmond), Sarah Groark (Saint Joseph’s), Lisa Ross (Saint Joseph’s), Fiona McGovern (St. Bonaventure) and Kelsey McDonnell (VCU).
The 2024 Atlantic 10 Women’s Lacrosse Championship launches with first round contests Thursday between No. 4 Saint Joseph's and No. 5 VCU at noon ET and No. 3 Davidson and sixth-seeded George Mason in the second quarterfinal at 3 p.m. ET. The semifinals start Friday at noon ET with top-seeded Massachusetts hosting the winner between Saint Joseph's/VCU before No. 2 Richmond squares off against the victor of the Davidson/George Mason game.
All five contests of the A-10 Women’s Lacrosse Championship will be streamed live via ESPN+.