Cornell's Seibald wins the Tewaaraton
There are some who will argue that a miscarriage of justice occurred when the Tewaaraton, lacrosse’s version of the Heisman, was handed to the Big Red’s Max Seibald.
Certainly, the senior midfielder didn’t have the numbers that competitors like Duke attackman Ned Crotty, Virginia attackman Danny Glading and even Bryant attackman Zack Greer had. And proponents of Syracuse midfielder Matt Abbott will assert that he was a versatile workhorse who played for an Orange team that captured an NCAA-record 11 national titles and second in a row.
But Seibald, who registered 28 goals and 10 assists, was the undisputed leader of a Cornell squad that some might say overachieved in reaching the NCAA championship final against Syracuse on Memorial Day. He took faceoffs, played defense, and was the glue of a program that hadn’t been to the Final Four before Seibald’s presence since 1988. With Seibald, the Big Red went to the semifinals in 2007 and 2009.
When I asked coach Jeff Tambroni after Cornell’s quarterfinal victory over Princeton to assess Seibald’s impact on the program, Tambroni returned the favor by asking me, "How much time do you have to talk?" And he was serious.
Seibald graduates as the first player in Ivy League history to earn first-team honors all four years and the 11th player in school history to exceed 140 career points (141).
On Thursday night, he became only the third player in the history of the Tewaaraton to earn the award even though his team did not win the national title. It’s the second time in three years that this has occurred with Duke attackman Matt Danowski collecting that honor in 2007 after leading the Blue Devils to the NCAA championship final against Johns Hopkins.
Northwestern senior midfielder Hannah Nielsen was honored as the women's winner for the second straight year (she was also one of five Tewaaraton finalists in 2007). Nielsen set records for assists in the NCAA tournament (16) and assists in a title game (six), which was won by the Wildcats for the fifth straight year.
