Teams: Women's Lacrosse: Press Releases

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

RAPPOLI NAMED NESCAC COACH OF THE YEAR, THREE JUMBOS ON FIRST TEAM

NESCAC Coach of the Year Carol Rappoli

MEDFORD -- Tufts University's first-place finish in the 2009 NESCAC Women's Lacrosse standings has been rewarded with four awards as the All-Conference Teams were released today. Carol Rappoli is the conference's Coach of the Year, and All-NESCAC First Team honors went to senior midfielder Chrissie Attura (Yarmouth, ME/Yarmouth), sophomore midfielder Amanda Roberts (Wenham, MA) and junior defender Alyssa Kopp (Hollis, NH/St. Paul's). Both Attura and Roberts were honored by NESCAC for the second straight season.

Rappoli has guided the Jumbos to a 14-2 overall record, a school record for victories. The team's 8-1 mark in the league earned them the #1 seed in the conference tournament for the first time. Tufts moved into top 10 of the Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) poll early and stayed there for the rest of the season. The Jumbos will make their first-ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament this afternoon when they host Drew University at Bello Field. Now in her 24th season at Tufts, and her 31st year in coaching overall, Rappoli has records of 224-101-1 at the school and 279-133-4 overall. She is sixth all-time in coaching victories for all divisions, and fourth among Division III coaches.

Attura has been one of the best playmakers in the league this spring, with 31 assists in 16 games to rank second with 1.94 per game. She is third on the team in scoring overall, adding 14 goals to total 45 points. She had nine goals and 16 assists for 25 points in nine NESCAC games. She had four assists in NESCAC games against Amherst twice and versus Middlebury. Her seven ground balls against Trinity on April 4 tied for the most in a game this year.

Roberts enters the NCAA Tournament sixth in the NESCAC scoring race with 57 points on 45 goals and 12 assists. She's third in the league in goals and also among the conference's top 10 in ground balls (38), draw controls (31) and caused turnovers (22). She had 19 goals and eight assists in nine NESCAC games, and she scored six in the team's NESCAC Tournament first-round win over Amherst on April 26. Her four caused turnovers at Wesleyan on March 28 tied for the team's best total in a game this year.

Kopp is tied for first in NESCAC with 38 draw controls, tied for third in NESCAC in ground balls (45) and is fifth in the league with 25 caused turnovers. Her work on defense has helped Tufts rank third in the league with a 9.13 goals against average. She twice had six draw controls in a game, against Williams on March 21 and against Connecticut College on April 19. She caused four turnovers at Colby on March 14 and scooped up seven ground balls in the regular-season game against Williams.

Tufts' three first team All-Conference picks tied Colby for the most.

►2009 NESCAC Women's Lacrosse All-Conference Teams

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