MINNEAPOLIS - The Midwest Lacrosse Conference Men's Lacrosse Postseason Awards have been announced, and University of Northwestern fans will recognize some familiar faces.
Jay Mayes was named the conference's Coach of the Year and four of his players were recognized as All-Conference selections.
Mayes was voted Coach of the Year by his peers after leading the Eagles to six wins and a 2-2 conference record through plenty of adversity in the program. This season, Mayes also became the winningest coach in program history in UNW's win at Northland on March 20th. Northwestern had two, three-game winning streaks in 2024 under Mayes's guidance and reached the MLC Tournament Semifinals for the third time in his tenure.
Ryan Adkins (St. Michael, Minn./St. Michael-Albertville) was named First Team All-MLC for the second consecutive season after leading the conference in faceoffs won (193) and ground balls (130). Those marks not only led Northwestern in each category, but also set new single-season program records. Adkins also led UNW in shots (79) this season, while finishing second in man-up goals (3), and fifth in goals (16), points (21) and shots on goal (31). He graduates as the all-time program leader in career faceoffs won and career faceoff percentage, and second all-time in career ground balls (231).
Sam Moses (Wausau, Wis./Wausau East) was named to the All-MLC Second Team for the third time in as many years. In addition to being the only Eagle to score a man-down goal this season, the captain finished second on the team in assists (14) and shots on goal (46), third in points (31), shots (71) and shots on goal percentage (64.8%), and fourth in goals (17). In conference games, Moses tied for third in assists (7), sixth in shots on goal (6) and eighth in shots (21). He also wrapped up his career in purple fifth in program history in career goals (57), career assists (32), career points (89), career shots (225) and shots on goal (150), and sixth in career man-up goals (4).
Jakob Montesi (Evergreen, Colo./Evergreen) earned All-MLC Second Team honors for the second straight year after another stellar season on the defensive side of the ball. Montesi led the team in caused turnovers (26) and was second in ground balls (38). His 26 ground balls were also tied for fourth in the MLC and his 17 ground balls in conference games ranked fifth. He is also the all-time program leader in career caused turnovers (93) and fifth in career ground balls (144).
Christian Mitchell (Oak Grove, Minn./PACT Charter School), who led the team in goals (35), points (44), shots on goal (56), shots on goal percentage (77.8%) and man-up goals (6), was chosen to be the team's representative on the MLC All-Sportsmanship team.
