CHICAGO, Ill. - Penn State men's lacrosse captured three Big Ten postseason individual awards and had six players named to All-Big Ten teams as announced by the conference on Wednesday.
TJ Malone, Jack Fracyon and head coach Jeff Tambroni highlighted the honors as Malone was named Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year, while Fracyon earned Big Ten Specialist of the Year and Tambroni captured his second Big Ten Coach of the Year honor.
Malone who also was a First Team All-Big Ten pick, led the Big Ten in points with a career-high 54 off 26 goals and 28 assists. The graduate student captured one Big Ten weekly award this season with his eight point outing against sixth-ranked Johns Hopkins with four goals and four assists. This season alone, Malone has ranked up seven five point plus games and eight multi-goal games. He led the Nittany Lions during the regular season in points, assists and was tied for first in game-winning goals and second in ground ball pickups. The West Chester, Pa. native was named a 2023 Tewaaraton Award Top 25 nominee earlier this season as this is the first time in his career he has been named Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year as well as a First Team All-Big Ten selection.
Fracyon had a stellar sophomore season as he was also a First Team All-Big Ten pick. He led the Big Ten in goals against average and save percentage in the regular season allowing just 10.03 goals per game and saved 58.2 shots fired at him. He also led the Big Ten is saves per game stopping 13.83 shots per game. He was named Big Ten Specialist of the Week once this season as well as USA Lacrosse Magazine Division I Player of the Week on March 14. He recorded a career-high 18 saves against Lafayette in the first game of the season. He started in every game this season recording a record of 9-3 which is a career-high in wins in a season.
Attackman and captain Jack Traynor was named the to the All-Big Ten Second Team as he led the Nittany Lions in goals during the regular season with a career-high 27. He racked up eight multi-goal games including a single-game high six goals at Michigan. He was named Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week once this season as well as named to USILA Team of the Week. He also scored multiple points in 11 of the 12 games he's played this season and finished out the regular season with 27 goals and 13 assists for 40 points. This is Traynor's first All-Big Ten selection.
Defenseman Jack Posey was also named to the All-Big Ten Second Team as he was the Nittany Lions top defenseman during the regular season. He finished out the regular season with nine caused turnovers which is tied for a career-high and has scooped a career-high 24 ground balls. During the season he was named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week once for his play against Penn. This is the first time in his career he's been named an All-Big Ten selection.
Midfielder Grant Haus sealed the third All-Big Ten Second Team selections. Haus tallied one goal while forcing a career-high eight turnovers and scooped a career-high 27 ground balls. He forced multiple turnovers in three games this season including three against Ohio State. This is his first career All-Big Ten selection.
Head coach Jeff Tambroni captured his second Big Ten Coach of the Year award in his career as he led the Nittany Lions to its second Big Ten Regular Season title in four years. He guided the team to a 9-3 overall record and 4-1 Big Ten record while going a perfect 6-0 at home. He captained the team to four Big Ten Weekly award winners, two national award honors and one top 25 Tewaaraton Award nominee. He is also leading the Nittany Lions to their fifth Big Ten semifinals in program history. During the season, he captured his 100th career win as Penn State head coach with the Nittany Lions victory over Penn on March 4.
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Defenseman and captain Brett Funk was named to the Big Ten Sportsmanship Team for the first time in his career. While he didn't play much during the season, Funk continued to be a passionate force on the sidelines leading the team through the good and bad times during the season. He showed a determined effort to do all he could to make the team better even if he wasn't on the playing field.
The Nittany Lions return to action on Thursday, May 4 when they compete at the Big Ten tournament semifinals at 1 p.m. They will face the winner of the quarterfinal matchup between Ohio State and Michigan.
