Kristen Yanchoris balanced sports and schoolwork quite well at Loyola Maryland, where she played four years on the Greyhounds’ women’s lacrosse team.
Yanchoris earned a prestigious honor upon graduating from Loyola in the spring — the former all-county player at Century High School received Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors last week from the Patriot League.
Yanchoris is the first Loyola woman to receive the conference’s top academic honor. The award is presented annually to one female and one male Patriot League student-athlete. Candidates are those named the Scholar-Athlete of the Year in their respective sports, with winners determined through a vote by the athletic communications staff at each league institution.
Yanchoris graduated with a 3.97 grade-point average, which ranked second among the athletes in this year’s Patriot League class. She twice received PL Women’s Lacrosse Scholar-Athlete of the Year
“This is an extremely impressive and distinguished honor for Kristen,” Greyhounds coach Jen Adams said in a news release. “I cannot think of anyone more deserving. Kristen is one of the most outstanding student-athletes that I have ever had the pleasure of coaching.”
On the field, Yanchoris had one of the most successful four-year runs in Loyola history. She became the first women’s lacrosse player in Patriot League history to earn four-straight all-conference honors, achieving first-team status as a defender in each of her final three seasons.
She also earned second-team all-Mid Atlantic Region honors in 2019. As a junior, Yanchoris was named Patriot League Defensive Player of the Year, and an Inside Lacrosse Women All-America selection.
Yanchoris earned starts in each of her 79 college appearances and totaled 114 ground balls and 83 caused turnovers at Loyola. The Greyhounds went 57-24 during her four years, and reached the NCAA tournament three times, winning two Patriot League championships and going 36-0 against conference opponents during the regular season.
Yanchoris was announced in June as Loyola’s 2019 NCAA Woman of the Year award nominee.
All-cleer for Coastal Carolina’s Kelly
Former South Carroll football standout Silas Kelly enters his redshirt junior season at Coastal Carolina on a national watch list for his work off the field.
Kelly is one to watch in 2019 for the Wuerffel Trophy, which is given to the top community servant from the College Football Subdivision.
Kelly, a two-time All-Sun Belt honorable mention selection, was named to both the 2019 Phil Steele and the 2019 Athlon preseason All-Sun Belt fourth teams this preseason. A two-time Sun Belt Conference Commissioner’s List honoree and a 2018 CoSIDA Google Cloud Academic All-District first-team selection, Kelly played in 11 games last season and started 10 at linebacker. He was second on the Chanticleers with 60 tackles and 5.5 tackles per game, despite missing almost a full two games due to injury.
Kelly recorded six tackles or more in seven games at his linebacker position and registered three tackles for loss, one sack, one fumble recovery, and three pass break-ups.
It’s academic for Shippensburg’s Hertz
Shippensburg University women’s lacrosse senior Valerie Hertz (Liberty) landed on the the 2019 Google Cloud Academic All-America At-Large Third Team for Division II athletics, becoming the first Raiders lacrosse player in 15 years to be named an Academic All-American.
Hertz graduated summa cum laude in May with a degree in marketing and a 3.97 cumulative grade-point average. She becomes just the third Academic All-American in this history of SU lacrosse.
Hertz, a two-time Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association All-Atlantic Region First Team and three-time All-Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference first-team defender, completed her college career with a school-record 154 career caused turnovers while ranking second in Shippensburg history with 227 career groundballs and 180 career draw controls.
Hertz repeated in 2019 as an IWLCA All-Region and All-PSAC first-team honoree — finishing as one of just two conference players to be ranked among the league’s top eight at the conclusion of the regular season in groundballs per game (third), caused turnovers per game (fourth) and draw controls per game (eighth).
Hertz ranked 15th in the nation in caused turnovers per game (2.44) and 16th in groundballs per game (3.88). She produced multiple caused turnovers in 11 games, including four or more on five occasions.