Taylor, Champion Earn All-America Status

May 30, 2007

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Two of the key players behind Yale's 13-4 season and NCAA tournament appearance were honored by the Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association with All-America status on Wednesday. Junior midfielder Lauren Taylor (Manhasset, N.Y.) made the first team and junior defenseman Jess Champion (Moorestown, N.J.) made the third team. Taylor is the first Bulldog to earn first team status since Miles Whitman '04 did so in 2004. This is the fourth time in the last nine years that Yale has had more than one player earn All-America status. Only 10 other schools in the country had multiple players selected this year.

A Tewaaraton Trophy nominee, Taylor led the country in goals per game (65 in 17 games, 3.82 per game). She was the 2007 Ivy League Player of the Year, the first Bulldog to receive that honor in the 27 years it has been awarded. She and Champion were unanimous First Team All-Ivy selections.

Taylor was sixth in the country and first in the Ivy League in points per game (81 in 17 games, 4.76 per game), becoming the first Yale player to break 70 points in a season in 27 years. She led the Ivy League in draw controls with 43. She also had career highs in assists (16), points (81), ground balls (29) and caused turnovers (23).

Taylor's 65 goals -- a 20-goal improvement from the previous season -- tied for second on Yale's single-season record list and her 81 points tied for fourth. With one more season to go, she is fourth on Yale's career goals list with 157 and fourth on Yale's career points list with 187. She has a 25-game point scoring streak and 17-game goal-scoring streak going.

Taylor was womenslacrosse.com National Player of the Week Mar. 26 and was a four-time Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week selection. She scored the game-winning goals against both Dartmouth and Princeton, helping Yale beat those two teams in the same season for the first time in 16 years.

A history of science/history of medicine major and part of Yale's five-year BA/MPH program, Taylor was named to the ESPN The Magazine/College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-District I second team.

Taylor, a graduate of Manhasset High School, was third team All-American at attack as a freshman. She, Whitman, Megan Strenski '02 and Heather Bentley '00 are the only Bulldogs to have earned multiple IWLCA All-America honors in the last 10 years -- all were two-time honorees.

Champion was the top player on Yale's defense, which ranked seventh in the country (8.49 goals per game). Regularly assigned to cover the opposing team's best player, she contributed to two of Yale's biggest wins by holding Dartmouth's Whitney Douthett (third team All-American) without a goal in a 10-8 Yale victory and helping limit Princeton's Katie Lewis-Lamonica (second team All-American) to two goals in the 6-5 Yale victory.

Champion, a graduate of Moorestown High School, had a career-high 23 caused turnovers and 20 draw controls. She also had 30 ground balls, including six in the win over Princeton.

Both players were selected for the All-America team after initially earning IWLCA All-Region recognition for the Northeast region on May 24. A total of 128 student-athletes were honored with All-Regional selection by the IWLCA and were eligible for inclusion on the IWLCA/US Lacrosse All-America team. The All-America team consists of 16 first-team members, 16 second-team members and 16 third-team members.

The IWLCA and US Lacrosse will honor the All-Americans at an awards banquet on June 16 in King of Prussia, Pa.

Yale's 13-4 record represented the eighth-best winning percentage in school history, and the Bulldogs tied the school mark for wins in Ivy League play with six. Yale was ranked as high as No. 11 in the IWLCA poll.

Yale's IWLCA All-Americans since 1998:

2007
Jr. M Lauren Taylor (first team)
Jr. D Jess Champion (third team)

2005
Fr. A Lauren Taylor (third team)

2004
Sr. M Miles Whitman (first team)
Sr. D Jenn Kessel (third team)
Sr. A Sophie Melniker (third team)

2003
Sr. A Sarah Queener (third team)
Jr. M Miles Whitman (third team)

2002
Sr. D Megan Strenski (third team)

2000
So. D Megan Strenski (third team)

1999
Jr. A Heather Bentley (second team)
Sr. G Alison Cole (second team)

1998
So. A Heather Bentley (second team)

report by Sam Rubin '95 (sam.rubin@yale.edu), Yale Sports Publicity