INDIANAPOLIS – Ohio Valley and Seton Hill earned Great Midwest Athletic Conference Men’s Lacrosse Players of the Week honors for the ninth week of the regular season as announced on Tuesday.
The Great Midwest continues to have three institutions plugged into the USILA Division II Top-20 Poll with No. 4 Seton Hill, No. 7 Lake Erie and No. 19 Mercyhurst.
The Great Midwest continues to be positioned well in the North Region for a potential NCAA Championship bid as the first set of regional rankings will be announced this week.
The movement in the conference standings also remains fluid as Wheeling Jesuit (5-5, 3-2 G-MAC) slipped by Mercyhurst (6-4, 2-2 G-MAC) into third place. The top four teams in the standings will qualify for the Great Midwest Championship.
Hosting responsibilities for the postseason looks like it will come down to national powers Seton Hill (9-1, 3-0 G-MAC) and Lake Erie (8-1, 5-0 G-MAC). The Griffins and Storm will collide this weekend on Saturday in Greensburg, Pa.
Offensive Player of the Week
Drew Braden
Ohio Valley
Attack
Sophomore
Wooster, OH (Wooster HS)
Braden earned his second career offensive player of the week nod as the Fighting Scots defeated Alderson Broaddus for a conference win.
Braden was credited with seven points as he scored five goals and assisted two more against the Battlers. He additionally filled the box score with three ground balls and a pair of caused turnovers.
Braden scored his five goals on 13 shots and had eight shots on target.
Braden is one of OVU’s top guns offensively this season and now has 17 goals and eight assists on the stat sheet for the spring. His 25 points is tied for second on the team with Daire Newbrough.
Braden now has 40 goals (58 points) in his rising career, ranking fifth all-time in the conference’s young history with the sport.
Defensive Player of the Week
Jay Scerbo
Seton Hill
Midfield
Sophomore
Woolwich, NJ (Kingsway HS)
Scerbo was tabbed for defensively weekly honors by the league for the second time this spring as the Griffins improved to 9-1 overall.
Seton Hill edged out rival Mercyhurst in a rematch of last year’s conference championship final by a score of 11-9 in a true defensive struggle.
Scerbo had his fingerprints all over Seton Hill’s latest triumph with 15 ground balls. He also won 18-of-23 faceoffs to help the Griffins control possession against their storied rival.
Seton Hill has allowed just 74 goals to be scored against its defense this season in 10 games. The Griffins are also outscoring each opponent by an average of 8.5 goals per contest.
Scerbo remains the league leader in ground balls per game (9.70) and faceoff percentage among qualified starters (.683) having won 172 of his 250 total attempts.