Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 2/22/19
Vermont freshman David Closterman garnered America East Rookie of the Week honors for his performance in Vermont’s 9-7 win over Holy Cross last Saturday, giving the attackman from Academy of the New Church and Duke’s LC conference recognition for the second consecutive week to open the 2019 season.
Closterman recorded a hat trick for the second time this season and added his first career assist for a four-point debut on Virtue Field. The freshman tallied a pair of first quarter goals and the eventual game-winning-goal in the fourth quarter.
Closterman picked up the first America East weekly award for his performances against Utah and Navy to open the season.
Closterman recorded a hat trick in his first collegiate game at Utah in a 21-6 win, marking the fourth straight year a Vermont freshman has opened the season with a hat trick. He added a ground ball and caused turnover at Utah. Vermont scored 21 goals for the first time since 1994 in the win over Utah.
Vermont is 2-1 in the 2019 season and hosts Quinnipiac this Saturday (Feb. 23) at Virtue Field.
Navy goalie Kern (Salesianum School) earns Patriot honors
Anchoring a defensive unit that allowed just three goals in the second half of the Navy’s 11-6 win over UMBC last Friday night at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, Ryan Kern (Jr /Salesianum School, Middletown, Del./ Duke’s LC) has been named the Patriot League Men’s Lacrosse Goalkeeper of the Week.
While it’s the first time Kern has been honored by the league this season, it’s his fifth goalkeeper of the week honor in what is his third year as the Mids’ starter.
Kern, who registered a season-high 14 saves in helping Navy turn aside the Retrievers, moved into 14th place on the Mids’ all-time saves list with 276. The Mids’ defense gave up just three goals over the final 45 minutes of play and stymied the Retrievers in the fourth.
Kern also found himself in the scoring column when his outlet pass to Jeff Durden (So / Cumming, Ga.) led to a transition goal to give the Mids a 4-1 lead in the opening quarter. He is the first Navy goalkeeper to record an assist since Tommy Phelan fed Andy Tormey in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament at Duke on May 9, 2009.
Navy returns to action on Saturday when it plays host to in-state rival Maryland (3-0) at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium at 12-noon.
