May 8, 2008

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Five Yale women's lacrosse players were named All-Ivy League Thursday afternoon after a vote by the league's coaches. Senior midfielder Lauren Taylor (Manhasset, N.Y.) and senior defender Jess Champion (Moorestown, N.J.) were named first team All-Ivy, while senior goalkeeper Ellen Cameron (Monkton, Md.) and junior midfielder Jenn Warden (Edgemont, Pa.) earned second team honors. Senior midfielder Kat Peetz (Spring Lake, N.J.) was named honorable mention. Taylor was a unanimous first-team selection and is just the fourth player in league history to be named first team All-Ivy four times.

An All-America candidate who was on the watch list for the Tewaaraton Trophy, Taylor won the Barbara Bowditch Award as Yale's team MVP for the second straight time this year. She led the Bulldogs with 41 goals and 59 points, the fourth straight season she has led Yale in both of those categories. She finished her career with 198 goals and 246 points, placing second to Tracy Ball '81 on Yale's all-time lists in both categories.

Taylor had 17 goals, 10 assists and 27 points in Yale's seven Ivy League games, leading the league in each of those categories. That included five assists in the 16-8 win over Columbia, when she tied her career high with nine points.

The only other Yale player to be named to first team All-Ivy four times was defender Megan Strenski '02 (1999-2002). Former Yale coach Francesca Den Hartog was honored four times when she played attack for Harvard from 1980 through 1983.

Taylor is a history of science/history of medicine major in Silliman College. She is part of a unique five-year academic program at Yale. After getting her B.A. this year she will receive a Masters degree in public health next year. Prior to Yale she attended Manhasset High School.

Champion was the top player on Yale's defense, which is ranked fourth in the country (7.45 goals per game). Regularly assigned to cover the opposing team's best player, she combined solid and consistent 1v1 defensive ability with a knack for changing the game with a timely interception, caused turnover or draw control. She was also adept at chasing down ground balls, including 20 on the season -- 17 in the final seven games, including five in Yale's 12-4 win over Brown. Champion was second on the team in draw controls (22) and third in caused turnovers (18) while committing only nine turnovers herself and serving as a key part of Yale's clears.

Champion was second team All-Ivy in 2005 and first team in 2007. A graduate of Moorestown High School, she is a political science major in Silliman College.

Cameron is third in the country in goals-against average (7.00). She had a save percentage of .495 in Ivy League games, second only to Penn's Sarah Waxman -- the Ivy League Player of the Year. Cameron had nine saves in a game four times this season, including the 9-8 overtime win at Dartmouth that gave Yale three straight wins over the Big Green for the first time in 26 years.

Cameron, who was second team All-Ivy last year, started the last 34 straight games in goal for Yale. An architecture major in Trumbull College, she is a graduate of Roland Park Country School.

One of the best two-way players in the league, Warden led Yale in draw controls (37), ground balls (36) and caused turnovers (29 in 16 games -- tied for 12th in the country). Her 22 draw controls in seven Ivy games led the league in that category, and she tied Champion for the lead in caused turnovers in Ivy games (12). She was also third on the team in goals with 26 and fourth in points with 32.

Warden, who was second team All-Ivy last season, tied her career high with six points in the 14-6 win over Harvard, scoring four goals and adding two assists. A history major in Saybrook College, she is a graduate of Lawrenceville School.

Peetz finished second on the team in goals (27), scoring at least one goal in 15 of Yale's 16 games. She also tied for second in points. Her 18 ground balls included five at Princeton, and she also had 12 draw controls.

Peetz was honorable mention All-Ivy for the previous two seasons. She is an economics major in Morse College and is a graduate of The Peddie School.

Yale went 11-5 in 2008 and was ranked No. 18 in the latest IWLCA poll. That was the 10th time in the last 14 seasons the Bulldogs finished with 11 or more wins. Yale is tied with Georgetown for the second-longest current streak of winning seasons (15), trailing only Maryland (27).