ROCK HILL, S.C. --- Three members of the Tusculum women's lacrosse team were selected to the All-South Atlantic Conference team, the conference office announced Monday following voting by the league's nine head coaches.
Junior midfielder Madison Malone was a first-team selection for the Pioneers for the second straight season, while junior attack Savannah Elliott and freshman defender Juliette Cusano earned honorable mention honors. The Pioneers finished 5-11 overall and in sixth place in the conference with a 3-5 record, earning a spot in the SAC Championship tournament for the third straight year.
Malone broke her own SAC and Tusculum single-season record for assists with 47, while adding 21 goals to finish with a school single-season record of 68 points, which ranks fifth in the league. Malone had at least one point in all of Tusculum's 16 games to extend her streak of consecutive games with a point to 46, dating to 2015. Malone had a pair of nine-point games, including two goals and seven assists against Converse on Feb. 16 and five goals and four assists at Coker on April 8. Malone had at least one assist in 15 of the Pioneers' 16 games, and had three or more ground balls in nine games.
Malone led the Pioneers with 40 ground balls, 71 draw controls and 23 caused turnovers, with her 71 draw controls ranking second in the conference and breaking her own school single-season record. She was named the SAC statistical champion in both draw controls per game (4.20) and assists per game (2.93).
Malone, a native of Maple Grove, Minnesota, was named honorable mention All-SAC as a freshman and first-team All-Conference last season. She is the program's career leader in assists (121), points (183), ground balls (136), draw controls (162) and caused turnovers (81), while ranking fourth with 62 career goals.
Elliott led the Pioneers with 43 goals, the ninth-best total in the conference, and had 48 points to rank second on the team to Malone. She scored 24 of her 43 goals in the Pioneers' eight conference matches, including four straight games with three goals or more to finish the regular season. Elliott broke the conference single-game record with 10 goals in a 19-13 win over Converse on Feb. 16, and had six goals in a 15-14 comeback win at Lincoln Memorial on March 29. Elliott also scored four goals against Brevard (Feb. 28) and three goals apiece against Newberry (March 11), Queens (April 1), Coker (April 8) and Wingate (April 22).
Elliott, a native of Oshawa, Ontario, is the program's career leader with 115 goals and ranks second with 129 points. She is one of two players in program history with back-to-back 40-goal seasons.
Cusano appeared in 14 games for the Pioneers and finished with eight goals and five assists for 13 points. She had four goals and an assist in the season finale against Wingate (April 22) and had at least one point in six of her final seven games. Cusano was second on the team with 31 draw controls and had 12 ground balls along with six caused turnovers. The Fort Lauderdale, Florida native had at least two draw controls in 10 of her 14 games, including a season-high of five against Pfeiffer on Feb. 25.
Faith Kent of Coker was honored as the conference's Player of the Year, with Freshman of the Year honors going to Gianna Pezzulo of Catawba. Kate Keagins of Coker was named Coach of the Year after leading her team to a third-place finish in the conference.
Tusculum will face Coker in the opening round of the SAC Women's Lacrosse Championship tournament on Tuesday at 3 p.m. in Hartsville, South Carolina. The winner of the game between the third-seeded Cobras and sixth-seeded Pioneers will play second-seeded Wingate in the semifinals on Friday at 6:30 p.m. in Charlotte, with the championship game scheduled for Saturday at 5 p.m.
