Duke leads 2017 All-ACC men’s lacrosse team selections

Cheryl Treworgy, TSN via PrettySporty.com
Cheryl Treworgy, TSN via PrettySporty.com

GREENSBORO, N.C. – The Duke Blue Devils, seeded No. 2 for this weekend’s Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Men’s Lacrosse Championship, led with five selections to the 2017 All-ACC Men’s Lacrosse Team as announced by the conference on Thursday.

Nine student-athletes on the Tewaaraton Award Watch List were included in the named 18-man squad as determined by a vote of the league’s five head coaches.

Regular-season champion Syracuse had four representatives, while North Carolina, Notre Dame and Virginia had three each.

Jack Bruckner, Jason Guterding, Cade Van Raaphorst, Kyle Rowe and Danny Fowler were the Blue Devils’ five All-ACC team members, while Syracuse’s selections included Sergio Salcido, Nick Mariano, Scott Firman and Ben Williams.

Luke Goldstock, Austin Pfiani and Tate Jozokos represented North Carolina, and Notre Dame placed Sergio Perkovic, Garrett Epple and John Sexton on the squad.

Zed Williams, Michael Kraus and Ryan Conrad rounded out the group as Virginia’s reps.

League leaders

Offensively, Duke’s Guterding leads the league with 5.14 points per game, followed by Virginia’s Kraus at 3.93.

Guterding and Buckner share the league lead with 2.86 goals per game, followed by Kraus at 2.43.

Syracuse’s Salcido leads in assists with 2.33 per game, and Virginia’s Williams leads in shots taken at 7.62 per contest.

The Blue Devils’ Rowe owns a .574 faceoff percentage and has won 162 faceoffs while leading the conference with 6.69 ground balls per game heading into the ACC Championship.

Duke’s Fowler has been solid in the net with a league-leading 8.59 goals against average over 747:07 in net and also leads the conference with a .531 save percentage.

Playing for the title

The ACC Championship again features four of the nation’s top lacrosse programs as all four teams are currently ranked among the top 17 in both national polls, with Syracuse, Duke and Notre Dame in the top six.

Syracuse holds the top seed for this year’s tournament which gets underway Friday at Duke’s Koskinen Stadium.

The Orange (10-1, 4-0 ACC) will play No. 4 seed North Carolina (6-7, 1-3 ACC) in the first semifinal game at 6 p.m.

No. 2 seed Duke (10-3, 3-1 ACC) will meet No. 3 seed Notre Dame (7-3, 2-2 ACC) in the second semifinal that will follow at 8:30 p.m.

Winners of both matchups will meet in the ACC Championship game to be played on Sunday at Noon.

Before that, Virginia (8-6, 0-4 ACC) will play Penn (5-5, 2-3 Ivy League) in the ACC-Penn Classic at Koskinen on Saturday at Noon.

2017 ACC Men’s Lacrosse All-ACC Team

A – Jack Bruckner, Sr., Duke *

A – Justin Guterding, Jr., Duke *

A – Luke Goldstock, Sr., North Carolina

A – Zed Williams, Sr., Virginia *

A – Michael Kraus, Fr., Virginia

M – Sergio Perkovic, Sr., Notre Dame *

M – Sergio Salcido, R-Sr., Syracuse*

M – Nick Mariano, Sr., Syracuse *

M – Ryan Conrad, So., Virginia

D – Cade Van Raaphorst, So., Duke

D – Austin Pfiani, Sr., North Carolina *

D – Garrett Epple, Sr., Notre Dame

D – Scott Firman, Sr., Syracuse

SSM – Tate Jozokos, Sr., North Carolina

LSM – John Sexton, Jr., Notre Dame *

F/O – Kyle Rowe, Sr., Duke

F/O – Ben Williams, Sr., Syracuse *

G – Danny Fowler, Sr., Duke

  • 2017 Tewaaraton Award Watch List