May 17, 2018
WOODLAND, Calif. - Seven San Diego State women's lacrosse players earned All-Academic Scholar-Athlete recognition from the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, the league announced Thursday morning. The seven honorees are the second-highest total in program history.
To be eligible for MPSF All-Academic Scholar-Athlete status, a student-athlete needs to have a 3.00 or better cumulative grade-point average, be at least a sophomore academically, completed one full academic year at their school and competed in 50 percent or more of their team's games.
Leading the way for SDSU was Mackenzie Lech, who earned her third career academic award after picking up all-MPSF honors after a senior season that saw her record 25 ground balls and 14 caused turnovers, while playing in all 19 games (18 starts). The Milton, Georgia native studied marketing and owned a cumulative GPA of 3.52 before exhausting her eligibility this past spring.
Juniors Harlowe Steele and Natalie Peel were recognized for a second straight season after posting GPAs of 3.57 in environmental engineering and 3.20 in accounting, respectively. Steele, like Lech, was an all-MPSF performer on the field after tallying a team-best 38 goals with 29 ground balls, 58 draw controls and 16 caused turnovers. Peel, meanwhile, posted 16 goals and 17 ground balls. The duo was joined by classmate Paige Hudak (5 goals, 8 assists), who earned her way onto the list for the first time after registering a cumulative GPA of 3.00 in interdisciplinary studies.
Rounding out the group were sophomores and first-time honorees Taylor Sullivan (3.21 GPA; marketing) and Morgan Taylor. Sullivan, who hails from Annapolis, Maryland, started all 19 games and posted 20 goals, 21 ground balls and caused 22 turnovers. As for Taylor, she sports a 3.10 GPA in integrated marketing communications and is coming off a 2018 campaign in which she logged 23 goals, 20 ground balls, 19 draw controls and 14 caused turnovers. She was also named the MPSF Championship MVP after scoring a career-high four goals in the league title game.
The aforementioned Aztecs helped San Diego State win its first-ever conference title after it defeated UC Davis in overtime, 11-10, at the MPSF Championship in late April. The crown was the school's first MPSF title in any sport and the victory provided SDSU with its program-record 11th win of the season.