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Bridgewater, NJ – The Northeast Conference (NEC) Championship has commenced, which means the time has arrived to distribute postseason hardware to the elite athletes in NEC women’s lacrosse.
Two-time NEC regular season champion Sacred Heart and a veteran-driven Stonehill squad that has quickly made a name for itself in the circuit stole the show in 2024, combining to take home four of the league’s six major awards.
Sacred Heart, which earned the top seed in the NEC Championship for the second consecutive year, ran it back as NEC regular-season champions for the first time in program history thanks in part to star-studded roster that boasts one of the stingiest defenses in the nation. The co-champs yielded a pair of NEC major award winners from their stout back line as a result, with junior
Maci Black (Spring Lake, NJ/Manasquan) securing NEC Defensive Player of the Year honors and fellow classmate
Lisa Martin (Huntington Station, NY/Huntington) garnering Goalkeeper of the Year recognition.
Stonehill took flight in its second season as an NEC member, ascending to the top half of the NEC standings to qualify for the NEC Championship and earn an historic First Round tournament win in its first year of postseason eligibility on Sunday.
Even more history was made in Easton in 2024, as the Skyhawks landed their first-ever major award winner with senior attack
Molly Mae Hughes (Franklin Square, NY/Sacred Heart Academy) being named the NEC Offensive Player of the Year. More impressively, Stonehill doubled its award haul with senior
Lilly Leach (Lyndonville, VT/St. Johnsbury Academy) earning NEC Midfielder of the Year distinction.
Merrimack also etched its name into the recordbooks in 2024. Boasting the league’s top scoring freshman, the Warriors landed their first-ever NEC major award winner with attacker
Lindsay Atkinson’s (Franklin, MA/Franklin) crowning as the NEC Rookie of the Year.
LIU has been on the up-and-up as of late, and this year was no exception. The trio of head coach
Meghan McNamara-Cafiero, assistant coach
Meghan Els and assistant coach
Kerri Liucci were voted the NEC Coaching Staff of the Year after they guided the Sharks to a share of the NEC regular-season title for the first time ever.
Hughes is in the midst of a phenomenal senior year, serving as the catalyst on the Skyhawks’ high-powered offense. She paces Stonehill and is the NEC’s leader in goals (55) and points (83), while her team-leading 28 dimes are good for second in the circuit. Hughes, who turned in multi-goal efforts in all but two games this season, manufactured 11 hat tricks and scored five-or-more goals four times. The first Stonehill player to ever earn a major NEC individual honor, she also made her first appearance on the All-NEC first team after she was named to the league’s second team a year ago. Hughes has started 60 of the 63 games she has played over her four-year career at Stonehill. She is tied for eighth in program history with 231 career points and is 10th all-time with 149 career goals.
Black’s NEC Defensive Player of the Year crowning is a historic one for the Pioneers. In the 19-year history of the award, she is the first-ever player in Sacred Heart annals to don the prestigious title. A native of Spring Lake, NJ, Black served as the ringleader of one of the nation’s top defensive units. Boasting a 5.86 goals-against average during the 10-game league slate, it’s an understatement to say that the Pioneers suffocated fellow NEC competitors. Causing a team-best 30 turnovers, including 19 during conference play, Black is second in the league in the category and is eighth in ground balls per game (2.27). Nine times this season, she caused multiple miscues, including a recent four caused turnover effort in a pivotal overtime triumph over Wagner on April 20. She garnered NEC Defensive Player of the Week honors for that dominant performance.
Leach was a dominant force on both ends of the field for the Skyhawks. A strong all-around performer, the Lyndonville, VT had a knack for finding the back of the net, ranking fourth in goals per game (2.94) and fifth in points per game (3.29). She produced nine hat tricks, including an NEC-leading seven-goal performance against Central Connecticut on March 30, and has netted four or more goals in each of her past three outings, a stretch that features a four-score effort in Stonehill’s first-ever NEC Tournament win over Saint Francis U on Sunday. Scoring isn’t the only weapon in Leach’s arsenal, though. The midfielder helped the league’s top offense earn countless possessions thanks to her superior ability on the draw. Posting double digits in draw controls five times — including a conference single-game best of 16 against Delaware State earlier this month — Leach leads the league by a sizeable margin and is 13th in NCAA Division I with 7.71 per game. Leach’s top midfielder award was accompanied by a spot on the All-NEC First Team, marking the second time in as many seasons that the midfielder garnered the distinction.
For the second time in the award’s history, which debuted in 2010 and made its return in 2022 after a seven-year hiatus, a Sacred Heart player was named the NEC Goalkeeper of the Year with Martin’s selection. With the Huntington Station, NY native patrolling the net, the Pios’ defense proved to be one of the best in the nation, ranking 12th overall after holding opponents to 8.80 goals per matchup. Goals were hard to come by for fellow conference competitors when facing Martin, with just one team (Wagner) managing to put up more than seven goals. The veteran closed out the regular season ranked first in save percentage (.490), second in goals against average (9.26) and seventh in saves per game (8.07). Martin joined former Pioneer netminder Chelsea Wagner, who pocketed the first-ever Goalkeeper of the Year award.
Atkinson delivered a plethora of lethal offensive performances in her debut season in North Andover. Merrimack’s leader in goals (31), assists (15) and points (46), Atkinson hit her stride and upped the ante during conference play. She netted six hat tricks during the 10-game slate — including a six-goal performance in a win at Delaware State earlier this month — and boosted her goals-per-game average to 2.60 to rank sixth in the circuit. Last week, she pocketed the NEC Rookie of the Week award for a league-best sixth time, and in the process, she shattered the league’s previous record of five rookie honors in a single season. A local product from Franklin, MA, Atkinson made history for Merrimack with her NEC Rookie of the Year nod, as she is the first-ever Warrior to garner a major award from the league.
McNamara-Cafiero has guided the Sharks to uncharted waters in 2024. The longtime head coach’s squad made a big splash in the NEC in her 17th year at the helm. With just one blemish on its record at the conclusion of conference play, LIU, which posted the best winning percentage against league opponents in program history (.900), earned a share of the NEC regular-season crown for the first time ever after they reeled in a program-record nine victories. Since falling to fellow co-champ Sacred Heart back in March, the Sharks have been on a roll with eight-straight wins and an average margin of victory of 7.9 scores during that stretch. McNamara-Cafiero and her staff brings LIU back to the NEC Championship for the fourth consecutive season in impressive fashion, as the second-seeded Sharks enter the postseason with the best playoff positioning in program history. McNamara-Cafiero becomes the first-ever LIU coach to ink the title of NEC Coach of the Year to her résumé in the program’s 22 years as an NEC member.
In addition to the six major award winners, the league unveiled its All-NEC first and second teams and an All-Rookie squad. All honorees were determined by a vote of the conference’s head coaches.
AWARD WINNER HIGHLIGHTS
This year’s list of women’s lacrosse all-stars featured a pair of repeat first team honorees. In addition, five standouts upgraded their status from second team in 2023 to first team in 2024, while three more retained their All-NEC Second Team titles from a year ago.
Earning at least a share of the regular season crown for the second time in as many years, Sacred Heart placed a league-leading five players on the All-NEC First Team. The Pios added two second team picks to push their award haul to seven, which led all NEC squads.
Sacred Heart’s top-three point scorers — graduate attacker
Emma Kittredge (Baldwin Place, NY/Somers), senior midfielder
Kelly Nolan (Cross River, NY/John Jay) and sophomore attacker
Maggie Araneo (Merrick, NY/Calhoun) — were each awarded All-NEC distinction for their offensive prowess. They are not strangers when it comes to taking home postseason hardware. Kittredge and Nolan traded in their second team selections for spots on the first team, while Araneo, an All-Rookie Team pick in 2023, puts a second feather in her cap with a nod to the second team.
Kittredge leads the pack with 35 goals and 44 points, while Araneo is not far behind with 32 and 39, respectively. Nolan enters the postseason as Sacred Heart’s assists leader (11), while her 31 points are good for third-most on the team.
Sacred Heart veteran defender
Ellie Holt (Cumberland Center, ME/Greely) was a repeat offender on the second team, while defender
Madelyn Breitbeil (New Fairfield, CT/New Fairfield) was the lone freshman to make the cut for the 15-player first team. She contributed 15 caused turnovers and 25 ground balls to Sacred Heart’s stout defense.
In addition to Leach, who was one of three Skyhawks to garner first team distinction following their inaugural season in the NEC in 2023, LIU sophomore midfielder
Julia Trainor (Billerica, MA/Billerica Memorial) earned a spot on the league’s top team for the second straight year.
This year, Trainor became the first LIU player to put up 50 points in a season since 2019, when Amanda Masullo and Rachel Masullo tallied 73 and 58 points, respectively. Racking up multiple scores in nine games, she closed out the regular season with 31 goals and 20 dimes for 51 points. The Billerica, MA native did it all for the Sharks, ranking first on the squad in caused turnovers (25) and ground balls (21), while totaling the second-most draw controls (71).
Senior attack
Olivia Fantigrossi (Port Jefferson Station, NY/Comsewogue), LIU’s top goal-getter, also took home first team distinction for the Sharks. With two six-goal games in league play, 27 of her team-best 37 goals were netted against conference competitors. The Sharks’ roster featured one more repeat all-conference honoree in senior defender
Catherine Robles (West Islip, NY/West Islip), who reclaimed her spot on the second team.
The Red Flash qualified for the playoffs for the second time in as many seasons thanks in part to the stellar — and consistent — play of sophomore sensations
Bella Fisher (Duxbury, MA/Duxbury) and
Bella Burke (East Moriches, NY/Center Moriches). The tandem traded last year’s second team honors for spots on the league’s top squad in 2024.
Fisher doubled her offensive output from an impressive freshman campaign that led to Saint Francis U’s first-ever NEC Rookie of the Year honoree. Tallying 24 goals, four assists and 28 points in 2023, Fisher put up team- and career-best numbers in goals (48) and points (69), while her 21 dimes are good for second on the Red Flash. The only current NEC player to rank in the league’s top-five in goals in consecutive seasons, the attacker is one of two players in the loop to rank in the top-four in all three offensive categories with 3.00 goals per game (t-2nd), 1.31 assists per game (4th) and 4.31 points per game (2nd ). In addition, Fisher is ninth in NCAA Division I with 1.00 free-position goals per game. Fisher put a bow on her sensational sophomore campaign with an explosive outing in Sunday’s NEC Championship First Round defeat at Stonehill. The Duxbury, MA native pumped in six goals and a career-high four assists for 10 points, the most by a player in the circuit this season.
Burke anchored a Saint Francis U back line that held seven of 10 league foes to single-digit goal totals during the regular season. The East Moriches, MA product caused multiple turnovers in nine games, including five in a key win against Le Moyne earlier this month. Burke ranks third in the conference in with 1.63 caused turnovers per game.
Merrimack graduate defender
Kelly Corrigan (North Andover, MA/North Andover) rounded out this year’s repeat All-NEC offenders by earning a spot on the second team for the second time in as many years.
As if the one-two punch of Hughes and Leach wasn’t a big enough blow for the opposition’s defense to handle, Stonehill’s attack, which produced the 18th-most goals in the nation, delivered a triple threat thanks to sophomore attacker
Grace Murphy (Kearsarge, NH/Holderness School). The trio ranks one-two-three amongst the conference’s top goal scorers with 156 tallies and they accounted for nearly 62 percent of the Skyhawks’ offense, which ranked first in the NEC by a wide margin with 14.56 tallies per contest.
With 51 total goals and an average of 3.00 per game, including five in the Skyhawks’ historic postseason win over Saint Francis U, Murphy landed a spot on the All-NEC Second Team alongside fellow linemate and classmate
Natalie Coutu (Brookline, NH/Bishop Guertin) and veteran defender
Karly King (Branford, CT/Branford).
In total, the Skyhawks produced six All-NEC performers, as junior midfielder
Sofia D’Agostino (Chemlsford, MA/Chelmsford) was named to the Second Team.
Newcomer Le Moyne made a splash in its debut season as an NEC member. Behind the strength of three All-NEC performers, the Dolphins went 8-2 in league play and earned a spot in the NEC Championship as the No. 3 seed. Highlighting the trio of award winners is
Lilly Locastro (Marcellus, NY/Marcellus), a senior defender who capped off her first season in the circuit with first team distinction. Snagging four NEC Defensive Player of the Week honors — the most of any defender in the loop — Locastro is the conference’s leader in caused turnovers by a longshot. Her 47 caused turnovers are 17 more than the next closest competitor, while her 2.61 caused turnovers per contest rank seventh in the nation.
Wagner’s trophy case on Grymes Hill was bolstered by the addition of two All-NEC trophies. Senior midfielder
Kelsey Scheidel (Islip, NY/Islip) and veteran defender
Ryan Murphy (Syracuse, NY/Westhill) were each voted to the NEC First Team from the Seahawks, who defeated Stonehill in First Round action on Sunday to punch their ticket to the NEC Tournament semifinals for the sixth-straight year.
The NEC boasted a talented crop of youthful midfielders, as four of the league’s top six freshmen made an instant impact for their respect teams at that position. Two of those middies hailed from FDU in
Nora Codianni (Long Beach, NY/Long Beach) and
Karly Dillabough (Syracuse, NY/Westhill). They were joined by Le Moyne’s
Maddi Barney (Lorraine, NY/South Jefferson) and Merrimack’s
Kaitlin Roche (Portsmouth, RI/Portsmouth).
Breitbeil and Atkinson added even more hardware to their trophy cases, as they tacked on All-Rookie Team honors to their already impressive award haul that featured respective first and second team nods.
About The Northeast Conference
Now in its 43rd season, the Northeast Conference is an NCAA Division I collegiate athletic association consisting of nine institutions of higher learning located throughout five states. Media coverage of the NEC extends to a number of the largest markets in the United States including New York (#1), Boston (#9). Hartford/New Haven (#34) and Syracuse (#85). Founded in 1981 as the basketball-only ECAC Metro Conference, the NEC has grown to sponsor 24 championship sports for men and women and now enjoys automatic access to 15 different NCAA Championships. NEC member institutions include Central Connecticut, FDU, Le Moyne, LIU, Merrimack, Sacred Heart, Saint Francis U, Stonehill and Wagner. For more information on the NEC, visit the league’s official website (www.northeastconference.org) and digital network (www.necfrontrow.com), or follow the league on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, all @NECsports.
2024 Northeast Conference Women's Lacrosse Award Winners
Offensive Player of the Year
Molly Mae Hughes Stonehill A Sr. Franklin Square, NY/Sacred Heart Academy
Defensive Player of the Year
Maci Black Sacred Heart D Sr. Rockville, MD/Connelly School of the Holy Child
Midfielder of the Year
Lilly Leach Stonehill MF Sr. Lyndonville, VT/St. Johnsbury Academy
Goalkeeper of the Year
Lisa Martin Sacred Heart GK Jr. Huntington Station, NY/Huntington
Rookie of the Year
Lindsay Atkinson Merrimack A Fr. Franklin, MA/Franklin
Coaching Staff of the Year
Meghan McNamara-Cafiero LIU 17th season
Assitant Coaches: Meghan Els & Kerri Liucci
2024 Northeast Conference Women's Lacrosse First Team All-Conference
Name School Pos Yr Hometown/High School (Previous School)
Olivia Fantigrossi LIU A Sr. Port Jefferson Station, NY/Comsewogue
Bella Fisher Saint Francis U A So. Duxbury, MA/Duxbury
Molly Mae Hughes Stonehill A Sr. Franklin Square, NY/Sacred Heart Academy
Emma Kittredge Sacred Heart A Gr. Baldwin Place, NY/Somers
Sofia D'Agostino Stonehill MF Jr. Chemlsford, MA/Chelmsford
Lilly Leach Stonehill MF Sr. Lyndonville, VT/St. Johnsbury Academy
Kelly Nolan Sacred Heart MF Sr. Cross River, NY/John Jay
Kelsey Scheidel Wagner MF Sr. Islip, NY/Islip
Julia Trainor LIU MF Sr. Billerica, MA/Billerica Memorial
Maci Black Sacred Heart D Jr. Spring Lake, NJ/Manasquan
Madelyn Breitbeil Sacred Heart D Fr. New Fairfield, CT/New Fairfield
Bella Burke Saint Francis U D So. East Moriches, NY/Center Moriches
Lilly Locastro Le Moyne D Sr. Marcellus, NY/Marcellus
Ryan Murphy Wagner D Sr. Syracuse, NY/Westhill
Lisa Martin Sacred Heart GK Jr. Huntington Station, NY/Huntington
2024 Northeast Conference Women's Lacrosse Second Team All-Conference
Name School Pos Yr Hometown/High School (Previous School)
Maggie Araneo Sacred Heart A So. Merrick, MA/Calhoun
Lindsay Atkinson Merrimack A Fr. Franklin, MA/Franklin
Natalie Coutu Stonehill A So. Brookline, NH/Bishop Guertin
Sarah Hutchings Le Moyne A Sr. Marcellus, NY/Marcellus
Grace Murphy Stonehill A So. Kearsarge, NH/Holderness School
Julia Givens Saint Francis U MF So. Elverson, PA/Twin Valley
Rhonee Shea Pal Le Moyne MF Sr. Canastota, NY/Bishop Grimes
Talie Richardson CCSU MF Jr. Southington, CT/Southington
Kelly Corrigan Merrimack D Gr. North Andover, MA/North Andover
Ellie Holt Sacred Heart D Sr. Cumberland Center, ME/Greely
Karly King Stonehill D Sr. Branford, CT/Branford
Catherine Robles LIU D Sr. Mount Sinai, NY/Mount Sinai
Holly Schweitzer Merrimack D Sr. West Islip, NY/West Islip
Amanda Weber LIU D Gr. Massapequa, NY/Farmingdale (Molloy)
Mylie Norton LIU GK Jr. Edgewater, MD/South River
2024 Northeast Conference Women's Lacrosse All-Rookie Team
Name School Pos Yr Hometown/High School (Previous School)
Lindsay Atkinson Merrimack A Fr. Franklin, MA/Franklin
Maddi Barney Le Moyne A Fr. Lorraine, NY/South Jefferson
Madelyn Breitbeil Sacred Heart A Fr. New Fairfield, CT/New Fairfield
Nora Codianni FDU A Fr. Long Beach, NY/Long Beach
Karly Dillabough FDU MF Fr. Syracuse, NY/Westhill
Kaitlin Roche Merrimack MF Fr. Portsmouth, RI/Portsmouth