ROCK HILL, S.C. --- The Tusculum women's lacrosse team was picked to finish fifth in the South Atlantic Conference preseason coaches poll, as voted on by the league's nine head coaches and released Monday.
Tusculum placed three players on the SAC Preseason All-Conference team, which was selected by the conference's media relations offices. Senior midfielder Madison Malone was a first-team honoree, while senior attack Savannah Elliott and sophomore defender Juliette Cusano were second-team picks.
Malone was named first-team All-SAC last season for the second straight year after she broke her own SAC and Tusculum single-season record for assists with 53, while adding 25 goals to finish with a school single-season record of 78 points, which tied her for third in the league. Malone had at least one point in all of Tusculum's 17 games to extend her streak of consecutive games with a point to 47, dating to 2015. Malone had a career-high 10 points (four goals, six assists) in a loss to Coker in the SAC Championship quarterfinals, and had a pair of nine-point games last season.
Malone led the Pioneers with 40 ground balls, 73 draw controls and 24 caused turnovers, with her 73 draw controls ranking second in the conference and breaking her own school single-season record. She was named the SAC statistical champion in both assists per game (3.12, 3rd in Division II) and draw controls per game (4.29, 23rd in Division II), and ranked 21st in the nation in points per game with 4.59. The Maple Grove, Minnesota product is the program's career leader in assists (127), points (193), ground balls (136), draw controls (164) and caused turnovers (82), while ranking fourth with 66 career goals.
Elliott was selected honorable mention All-Conference last year after she led the Pioneers in 2017 with 44 goals, the 12th-best total in the conference, and had 50 points to rank second on the team. She scored 24 of her 44 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 last season, and had six goals in a 15-14 comeback win at Lincoln Memorial. The native of Oshawa, Ontario is the program's career leader with 116 goals and ranks second with 131 points. She is also one of two players in program history with back-to-back 40-goal seasons.
Cusano appeared in 14 games for the Pioneers in her freshman season and finished with 11 goals and six assists for 17 points to earn honorable mention All-SAC honors. She had four goals and an assist in the season finale against Wingate, and added three goals and an assist in a SAC quarterfinal loss to Coker. Cusano was second on the team with 36 draw controls and had 13 ground balls along with eight caused turnovers. The Fort Lauderdale, Florida native had at least two draw controls in 11 of her 15 games, including a season-high of five against Pfeiffer on Feb. 25 and against Coker in the SAC tournament.
Queens (17-4, 8-0 SAC), which is 32-0 all-time in conference regular-season matches and has won all four SAC regular-season and tournament championships, received eight first-place votes and 72 points in the balloting. Wingate (13-5, 6-2) captured the other first-place vote and is tied for second place with Lenoir-Rhyne (11-8, 5-3) at 60 points. Coker (14-5, 6-2) is fourth with 50 points, followed by Tusculum (5-12, 3-5) in fifth with 44 points, Catawba (13-5, 5-3) in sixth with 40 points, Lincoln Memorial (6-9, 2-6) in seventh with 30 points, Newberry (5-12, 1-7) in eighth with 22 points, and first-year program Mars Hill in ninth with 18 points.
Tusculum hosts Lees-McRae to open its fourth season of competition on Saturday, Feb. 3 at noon at Pioneer Field. The Pioneers play their conference opener on Sunday, March 18 at Lenoir-Rhyne and wrap up league play and their 17-match regular season at Catawba on Saturday, April 21.
