Greer, Weiss, Hartmann, Salem Highlight Major Award Winners in All-CCC Team Announcement
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (April 29, 2022) – The Western New England men's lacrosse team received four major award winners as well as a coach of the year honoree in the 2022 All-CCC Team announcement that was made today by the conference office. Matt Greer, Mitch Weiss, Murphy Hartmann, and Josh Salem were all recognized for major awards while head coach John Klepacki was named CCC Coach of the Year.
Major Award Winners:
Matt Greer (South Windsor, Conn.) picked up the CCC Offensive Player of the Year award after collecting a career best 73 points on the season, which was also a team high. Greer found the back of the net 29 times this season, while collecting 44 assists. Greer also helped on the defensive end, scooping 45 groundballs and causing four turnovers in 17 games played. The graduate student has taken 70 shots this season, collecting 57 on goal.
Graduate Student Mitch Weiss (Westfield, Mass.) played in and started all 17 games during the regular season for Western New England, earning CCC Defensive Player of the Year accolades. Weiss scooped 47 ground balls this season while causing 16 turnovers on his opponents. Weiss totaled 206 ground balls and 74 caused turnovers over his career which spans from 2017-2022 with WNE. Weiss picks up his second career CCC Defensive Player of the Year accolade.
Murphy Hartmann (Anthem, Ariz.) picks up his second consecutive Short Stick Specialist of the Year honor. This season, Hartmann came away with five goals and collected two assists, good for seven points on the season. Hartmann scooped 19 ground balls and caused eight turnovers for the Golden Bears on their way to a perfect 8-0 CCC record. Hartmann took a career high 12 shots this season, putting ten shots on goal, also a career best. Over his four-year career with WNE, the senior has played in 53 games, making 28 starts.
Josh Salem picks up the CCC Scholar-Athlete of the year after his brilliance both on and off the field. Salem picks up WNE's first scholar-athlete of the year since 2014. This season, Salem scored his first two goals of his career, while scooping a season high 26 ground balls and causing ten turnovers. Salem took five shots during the regular season, putting two on goal.
CCC First Team All-CCC:
Eight members of the Western New England men's lacrosse team earned first team all-CCC honors. Senior attack Mike Bannon (Edmond, Okla.) has scored 35 goals and picked up 31 assists on the season, earning first team honors. Matt Greer also picked up honors as a first team all CCC honoree. Conor Tracy, a senior midfielder out of Walpole, Mass. collected first team honors after picking up 29 goals and adding 16 assists on the season, good for 45 points. Tracy also picked up his 100th career point earlier this season in a win over Salve Regina University. Of the defensive side, graduate student Kevin Faustich was named to the first team after collecting 47 ground balls, including an 11-ground ball game against Endicott College in a CCC win. Faustich scored three goals and added two assists during the season, good for five points while also causing 21 turnovers on the year. Short stick midfielder Murphy Hartmann also picked up first team honors for WNE. Junior goalkeeper Carter Randall made 153 saves this season in 15 starts, winning in ten of his 15 appearances this season, picking up first team accolades. Finalizing the all-CCC first team for WNE was Anthony Gamba, the long stick midfielder out of Oyster Bay, New York. The junior collected 26 ground balls and caused six turnovers on the season.
Second Team All-CCC:
The Golden Bears saw three pick up all CCC second team honors as Jared Newall, Noah Rust, and Josh Salem would land on the list for Western New England. Newall scored a career and season high 48 goals for Western New England this season to go along with five assists. Newall caused four turnovers and scooped eight ground balls during the regular season. Senior Noah Rust picked up his second consecutive 24 points season after finding the back of the net 15 times for WNE, as well as collecting nine assists. Rust collected nine ground balls and caused seven turnovers. Finalizing the list of second teamer's for WNE was the CCC Scholar Athlete, Josh Salem. Salem competed in and started in 16 games this season for WNE scoring twice this season. Salem scooped 26 ground balls this season, a career high while causing 13 turnovers for the Golden Bears.
Third Team All-CCC:
Just a single Golden Bear would be named to the all-CCC third team as Brian Madden would pick up honors. The midfielder had career highs in virtually every statistical category this season which included goals (24), assists (9), points (33), ground balls (6), shots (71), and shots on goal (44).
Coach of the Year:
For the fifth time in his career, Western New England men's lacrosse head coach John Klepacki was named to the CCC Coach of the Year. Klepacki guided the Golden Bears to a 12-5 record on the season including an 8-0 record in CCC play to pick up a bye in the first round of the upcoming CCC tournament. WNE will host the lowest seed remaining in the field on Wednesday, May 4 from Golden Bear Stadium.
