Teams: Men's Lacrosse: Press Releases

FIVE JUMBOS ON ALL-NESCAC FIRST AND SECOND TEAMS FOR 2009

Eytan Saperstein is one of three Jumbos on the All-NESCAC first team

MEDFORD -- The NCAA Tournament-bound Tufts University men's lacrosse team placed five members on the 2009 NESCAC All-Conference Teams annoucned today. On the First Team are sophomore forward D.J. Hessler (Monkton, MD/St. Paul's), senior forward Clem McNally (Far Hills, NJ/St. George's) and junior defenseman Eytan Saperstein (Hewlett, NY/Hewlett). Second Team honors when to senior long-stick middie Jordan Yarboro (Herndon, VA/Potomac School) and junior midfielder Mike Droesch (Setauket, NY/Ward Melville).

Hessler leads NESCAC in scoring by a wide margin with 86 points, 20 more than the second-place scorer. He leads the league in assists (44) and is tied for fourth in goals (42). Four of his goals have been game-winners, which ties for first in NESCAC. Nineteen of his goals and 26 assists came in the nine conference regular-season games. He had a 10-point game (4 goals, 6 assists) against Amherst in the season-opener and a five-assist game versus Wesleyan on March 28. An All-NESCAC second team pick last year, Hessler's 86 points are a school record.

McNally's 51 goals this spring are one more than 2009 NESCAC Player of the Year Mike Stone from Middlebury to lead the league entering NCAA play. A second team selection in 2007, McNally had 30 goals in NESCAC games this year. That total includes seven scores against Colby on March 14 and six against Wesleyan on March 28. His seven man-up goals are tied for most in the league.

Saperstein is the only junior among the three selections on NESCAC's first team defense. After overcoming an early-season injury, he was a force in front of the goal area for the Jumbos with 40 ground balls in 14 games. He also had a two-point game in a 12-9 win against Connecticut College on April 18 with a goal and an assist.

Yarboro was honored by NESCAC for the third consecutive season, including a second team nod last year and a first team selection in 2007. This spring, he's responsible for 40 ground balls including 24 in nine NESCAC games. He added a goal to the team's season-opening league win against Amherst and had assists in wins over conference opponents Connecticut College and Colby. Yarboro had five ground balls in a win at Williams on March 21.

Droesch ranks fifth among NESCAC face-off men with a 55.5 percent success rate, winning 147 of 265. That turned in to most of his 102 ground balls, an average of 6.0 per game that ranks fourth in the league. He was also a key contributor to the team's league-leading offense with 10 goals and 13 assists for 23 points (3-6-9 in conference games), tied for fifth fifth on the squad.  Droesch won 12 of 15 face-offs in a season-opening victory against Amherst and nine of 11 in a rout of Bates on March 31.

Tufts (13-4) finished third in the league for the regular-season and advanced to the conference championship game where they lost 14-10 to Wesleyan. Coach Mike Daly's team is ranked 12th in the week's United State Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association poll. The three All-NESCAC first team picks tied Tufts for the most with Bowdoin, and the team's five spots overall tied for the most with Williams.

►2009 NESCAC Men's Lacrosse All-Conference Teams

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