Maryland men's and women's lacrosse continue accumulating B1G Awards

It's that time of the week again when the Big Ten announces its Player of the Week Awards. Once again, Maryland dominated the lacrosse awards for both men's and women's lacrosse. Unsurprisingly, on the men's side, the awards all came on the defensive end of the field. For the women, it was everywhere.

For the men

Casey Ikeda won the Defensive Player of the Week for the third time this season. And the senior from Berwyn, PA had a very good week. He was part  of a defensive unit that held Robert Morris to just four scores in a game that may have seemed seven years long to them. The Terps repeated that feat against Michigan in the Big Ten opener holding the Wolverines to just four goals as well.

As for Ikeda, in the two games, he picked up six ground balls, caused one turnover and added an assist for good measure. He picked up four of those ground balls in the Michigan game. This marks the fifth consecutive week a Terrapin has garnered the Defensive Player of the Week.

At some point in the course of the season the B1G, which is still learning its way around the sport, decided to reclassify goalies as specialists rather than defensive players (at least on the men's side). Thus though Kyle Berhlohr won his second Big Ten Player of the Week Award, he won his first Specialist of the Week Award. Bernlohr previously won Defensive Player of the Week on February 16th.

Bernlohr actually became the first Terrapin to win Specialist of the Week. Of course, he anchored that defense that leads the nation in fewest goals allowed at 4.78 per game a figure that is about 1.6 goals better than the team in the second spot - Army.

Bernlohr had eleven saves in the two games with five coming against Robert Morris and six against Michigan. He also picked up three ground balls. Bernlohr currently leads the country with a .697 save percentage.

For the women

I hope you're sitting down when I report that Maryland won or shared all three Big Ten Women's Lacrosse weekly honors. I'll give you a minute to recover from that but ask you to stay seated. The three players on the conference's weekly list are Offensive Player of the Week Taylor Cummings, Freshman of the Week Megan Whittle and Defensive Player of the Week Alex Fitzpatrick. As the French say, 'Quel surprise.'

For Cummings, this is her second straight Offensive Player of the Week Award and her third overall. The award is based on her performance in Maryland's 16-5 rout on the road at fourth ranked Northwestern. Cummings once again proved that she doesn't need to score to dominate a game.

While her two goals and three assists are impressive, it was her continued domination in the draw circle that led the Terps to the lopsided win. The Ellicott City junior registered a career high 13 draw controls and, for the third consecutive game, notched more individually than the total of the opposing team. Cummings leads the B1G in points per game, draw controls and caused turnovers.

Whittle is also a consecutive repeat winner again earning the conference's Freshman of the Week Award. This is the fourth overall for the McDonogh graduate. Whittle scored five times at Northwestern meaning that, with seven goals, the two McDonogh grads themselves out scored the Wildcats. Whittle leads Maryalnd in goals scored with 33 and her average of 3.30 per game is second in the league.

This is the third straight week a Terp has won the Defensive Player of the Week and the third overall for Fitzpatrick who won her second two weeks ago. The transfer from Lehigh picked up six saves on 11 Northwestern shots. Both her goals against average (6.06) and save percentage (.528) lead the Big Ten. The former places her fifth in the country and the latter fourth.