Patriot League Announces Individual Honors

The Patriot League is getting ready for its postseason tournament -- it's the lacrosse version of the Internet's "FIRST!" -- but there's business to attend to before Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, becomes the most freedom-loving town in America: The Patriot League has fancy doorstops and, like, certificates of attendance to give out to people.

Here's where the conference's highest honors went this season (the league's coaches handled the voting, but could not vote for themselves or their own players):

Offensive Player of the Year - John Glesener, Army, So., A
Defensive Player of the Year - Brendan Buckley, Army, Sr., D
Rookie of the Year - Sean Doyle, Bucknell, Fr., A
Goalkeeper of the Year - Matt Poillon, Lehigh, So.
Coach of the Year - Jim Morrissey, Holy Cross

Honestly, that's probably spot on. You can make an argument for Lehigh's David DiMaria, Bucknell's David Dickson, or Colgate's Peter Baum as the offensive player of the year, but Glesener has been concentrated magic this year for the Black Knights. The balance in his game -- 29 goals against 27 assists -- is sublime, and while his 56 points trails DiMaria's 57, on a per-possession basis (adjusted for competition played), Glesener actually shows stronger than the Lehigh attack. (Plus, Glesener's usage rate both in volume and quality is stronger than DiMaria's, indicating that Glesener has been a more valuable and important component to Army's offense than what DiMaria has been to Lehigh's offensive.)

Buckley is a horse for Army and his selection feels solid. Picking defensive players of the year is always a tough task and it is heavily subjective, but Buckley -- as a true matchup nightmare -- fits the bill as a defensive wizard and is one of the best in the conference. I may have thrown my vote to Colgate's Bobby Lawrence as, to me, he's the most dynamic true defensemen in the Patriot League, but Buckley's selection is fine.

Lehigh was a completely different team this season without Poillon's services, and that may be the biggest reason that the netminder earned top honors. Poillon remains a soul-eater in the crease, and there isn't another player in the league that stops shots at the rate that Poillon does combined with the volume of shots he's asked to turn away. There's a noted gap in the Patriot League between a stopper like Poillon and guys like Army's Sam Somers and Holy Cross' Michael Ortlieb.

Jim Morrissey shouldn't just be the Patriot League coach of the year; he needs serious consideration as national coach of the year. What he has done in Worcester is sorcery, and the Crusaders' 2013 season was his best trick yet.

Here's how the All-Patriot League teams shook out:

First Team
John Glesener, Army, So., A
Garrett Thul, Army, Sr., A (**!)
Peter Baum, Colgate, Sr., A (***)
David Dickson, Bucknell, So., M (!)
Thomas Flibotte, Bucknell, Fr., M
Jimmy Ryan, Colgate, Jr., M
Brendan Buckley, Army, Sr., D
Bobby Lawrence, Colgate, Jr., D (*)
Mike Noone, Lehigh, Sr., D (!)
Alex Daly, Army, Fr., FOS
Pat Kiernan, Navy, Jr., LSM (!)
Matt Poillon, Lehigh, So., GK (*)

Second Team &
Chase Bailey, Bucknell, Sr., A
Ryan Walsh, Colgate, So., A (!)
David DiMaria, Lehigh, Sr., A (!)
John Hannan, Holy Cross, Sr., M
Patrick Corbett, Lehigh, So., M
Brian Hess, Lehigh, Sr., M
Mike Huffner, Bucknell, Sr., D (**)
Jackson Place, Bucknell, Jr., D
Ty Souders, Lehigh, Jr., D (*)
Ryan Gutowski, Bucknell, Sr., FOS
Robert Grabher, Colgate, Sr., FOS (*)
Ryan Snyder, Lehigh, Sr., FOS (*!)
Jimbo D'Aprile, Army, So., D-Mid
Sam Somers, Army, So., GK

& - Second team features 14 student-athletes because of a tie in the voting
* - Number of previous first-team accolades
! - Number of previous second-team accolades