2015 Atlantic Sun Women's Lacrosse Preseason Honors and Awards

MACON, Ga. (1/23/2015) -- The University of Detroit Mercy women's lacrosse team has been selected to finish third by the league's head coaches in 2015 as the Atlantic Sun released its preseason poll on Friday.
 
Detroit, which reached the Atlantic Sun championship game last year, received 41 votes in the preseason coaches poll. Jacksonville received six of the eight first-place votes and was picked to win the conference with 59 points. Old Dominion earned 53 votes to grab the No. 2 spot in the coaches poll.
 
Six Titans earned spots on the 14-member 2015 Preseason Atlantic Sun All-Conference Team, the most of any school in the conference. Senior goalkeeper Lexie McCormick (Peterborough, Ont. / St. Peters) was selected as the Preseason Defensive Player of the Year along with receiving a spot on the preseason squad.
 
On defense, seniors Amanda Guthrie (Winter Springs, Fla. / Winter Springs), Morgan Lear (San Ramon, Calif. / Dougherty Valley) and Taylor Marshall (Cincinnati, Ohio / Indian Hill) earned three of the five defensive positions, while senior attacker Tessa Keuler (Oregon City, Ore. / Oregon City and junior midfielder Kylie Birney (Plymouth, Mich. / Ladywood) were each named to the preseason all-conference squad.
 
McCormick, the 2013 Atlantic Sun Defensive Player of the Year and two-time All-Conference goalkeeper, has started all 54 games in her career and finished fourth in the NCAA in 2014 with 181 saves. She was also fifth in the NCAA with 10.06 saves per game and 3.44 ground balls per game last season and currently holds school records for saves (500) and wins (18).
 
Guthrie is a two-time All-League defender who led the Titans with 21 caused turnovers, while ranking second with 37 ground balls in 2014. Lear, a senior co-captain, has started 42 games for the Titans and earned All-Atlantic Sun Second Team honors last season. Marshall was a First Team All-Conference defender in 2013 and missed parts of last season due to an injury.
 
Keuler, a two-time co-captain, led the Titans with 40 points (22 goals, 18 assists) during the 2014 season. She has twice been voted to the Atlantic Sun All-Tournament Team. Birney, also a two-time co-captain and 2014 First Team All-Conference recipient, scored 26 goals for Detroit last season, which ranked second on the team. She was also second on Detroit with 28 draw controls and third with 31 ground balls.
 
In addition to the six Titans named to the 14-member Preseason All-Conference Team, senior attacker Annie Mendoza (Lansing, Mich. / Lansing Catholic Central) and sophomore Kelsi Pritchard (Orillia, Ont. / Patrick Fogarty) were named to the Preseason Atlantic Sun Women's Lacrosse Watch List.
 
The Titans return 10 of their 12 starters from a season ago and seven of their top eight scorers. Detroit is entering its seventh season of women's lacrosse overall and fourth season under head coach Laura Maness.