NEW YORK – The University of Denver women's lacrosse team headlined All-Big East Awards, bringing in three major awards and placing eight on all-conference teams.
After a perfect 6-0 finish in Big East Conference play and its seventh consecutive regular season title, junior
Olivia Ripple was voted Big East Attacker of the Year, while
Lexi Gwaku was named Goalkeeper of the Year and
Liza Kelly and the Denver coaching staff were named Big East Coaching Staff of the Year.
Ripple marks the seventh consecutive Pioneer to be awarded Attacker of the Year honors (
Lauren Black: 2025;
Julia Gilbert: 2023, 2024; Bea Behrins: 2022, 2021; Quintin Hoch-Bullen: 2019). The junior led Denver with 72 points on 59 goals and 13 assists and leads the Big East with 3.69 goals per game. Ripple recorded multi-goal performances in all but two games this season and her 59 goals are tied for sixth-most by a Pioneer in a single season.
Gwaku is the second-straight Pioneer to earn Big East Goalkeeper of the Year honors after
Emelia Bohi earned the recognition a season ago. The sophomore goalkeeper leads the Big East and is third in the nation with 7.21 goals against average and a 0.495 save percentage. She made seven or more saves on nine different occasions and tied her career-best nine saves in wins over Arizona State, Marquette and the loss to Colorado.
Ripple and Gwaku join three other Pioneers named to the All-Big East First Team -
Caroline Keil,
Megan Klingenberg and
Landry Grover while
Ryan Dineen,
Carly Frohnapfel and
Eva Thomsen-Marr earned second-team honors.
Keil leads the nation in free-position goals, averaging 1.25 tallies per game and ranks second in the Big East with 48 goals. The redshirt-sophomore had multi-goal performances in all but two games this season, including a career-high seven goals in the win over Vanderbilt.
Klingenberg and Grover both started in every game this season and average 2.06 and 1.38 caused turnovers per game, respectively. The senior defenders anchor the number two scoring defense in the nation, allowing just 6.81 goals per game.
Dineen and Thomsen-Marr lead the Pioneers with 22 assists and average 1.38 assists per game. Dineen has tallied 26 goals this season, including eight multi-goal performances while Thomsen-Marr tacked on 37 goals and recorded one or more goal in every every this season.
Frohnapfel has started every game this season and ranks third on the team with 19 caused turnovers. The senior defender has been a critical member of the Pioneers' success on the draw with 31 wins in the circle and scored her first career goal in the win over Xavier.
UP NEXT:
Denver hosts the Big East Tournament this week at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium. The Pioneers will face the Marquette Golden Eagles in the semifinal round on Thursday at 4 p.m. MT in pursuit of their sixth straight Big East Tournament title.
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