By Chris Goldberg
Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 2/22/08
Drexel’s trio of Steve Grossi (Strath Haven), Andrew Chapman and Bruce Bickford head a large cast of local players selected by coaches across the country for the recently released Warrior Tewaaraton men’s and women’s preseason nominees.
Grossi, a second-year captain, is a senior long-stick middie who earned first-team all-Colonial Athletic Association honors last year while leading the Dragons to an 11-5 season. Chapman, a senior attacker, scored 42 goals last year and Bickford, a senior, is a goalkeeper.
Also on the men’s list is Villanova senior attacker Chris MacDonald, who had 19 goals and 18 assists last year for the Wildcats.
Other locals named to the list were Duke senior defender Tony McDevitt (Penn Charter), Maryland senior attacker Max Ritz (Radnor) and Penn State junior goalkeeper Drew Adams (Springfield-Delco).
McDevitt, a third-team all-American last year, led Duke into the NCAA title game against Johns Hopkins. Ritz collected 24 goals and 25 assists last year and Adams is a two-time ECAC Goalie of the Year who posted a 7.78 goals against average last year for the Nittany Lions.
The women’s nominees include three standouts from Pennsylvania; junior defender Hilary Renna, senior goalie Sarah Waxman and sophomore attacker Ali DeLuca.
Waxman was named the IWLCA C. Markland Kelly National Goalkeeper of the Year last year when Penn reached the Final Four while Renna was a first-team All-American and DeLuca (34 goals) the Ivy League Rookie of the Year.
Other nominees included Notre Dame senior midfielder Caitlin McKinney (Germantown Academy), Penn State senior midfielder Jessi Lieb (Radnor), West Chester senior attacker Stephanie Kienle (Henderson) and Franklin & Marshall junior attacker Jen Pritchard (Penncrest).
McKinney scored 44 goals last year for the Irish and was a second team all-American. Lieb scored 26 goals last year for the Lions and is a member of the U.S. Women’s Elite Team. Kienle set an NCAA record with 140 points (74 goals, 66 assists) last year in helping the Rams reach the Division II title game.
Pritchard scored 77 goals last year and was named IWLCA Attacker of the Year for Division III as F&M went 21-0 and claimed its first Division III national title.
