Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 3/14/19
Haley Warden, a Garnet Valley alum who helped lead James Madison to its first NCAA women’s Division I national championship last spring, has been named as a semifinalist for the prestigious AAU James E. Sullivan Award.
The AAU James E. Sullivan Award, presented by the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), is awarded annually in April to “the most outstanding amateur athlete in the United States.”
You can vote once per day for the semifinalists by clicking here. Voting will close March 15 at 11:59 pm ET. and then soon will reopen when the finalists are announced March 18.
As a senior, Warden helped JMU finish 22-1, defeating Boston College , 16-15, on May 27 at Stony Brook to win the national title. She is the first player in CAA history to win both CAA Player of the Year (2017) and CAA Defensive Player of the Year (2018), earning All-America honors in both seasons.
A three-time All-CAA selection, Warden was JMU’s leader in the midfield, Warden shined during the postseason, winning CAA Championship Most Outstanding Performer in both 2017 and 2018 and also earning the 2018 NCAA Championship Most Outstanding Performer after playing a huge part in JMU’s national-title win.
She finished as one of the most decorated defensive midfielders in recent years, setting JMU all-time records for career draw controls (245) and caused turnovers (119) while also ranking seventh in ground balls (146) and 14th in free-position goals (22). She also set single-season JMU records for draw controls in 2018 (108) and caused turnovers in 2017 (47).
In his Sullivan bio, it states, “Warden received a lot of accolades in her career, but she is all about team’s success and didn’t worry about individual awards. She is the true definition of a leader for the JMU lacrosse program and in her team captain role, helped get her team ready for every matchup in front of them. Certainly, her leadership gave way for JMU’s historic 2018 national championship campaign.”
