Fitzgerald Named BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Week; Gilroy, Graziano Receive Honor Roll Accolade
Tuesday, February 17, 2015 | Lacrosse
NEW YORK, N.Y. – Sophomore defender Caroline Fitzgerald was named BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Week, as announced by the league office on Tuesday.
The Mount Sinai, New York, native helped lead Florida to the second-ever shutout in program history on Saturday against Michigan.
In all three games this season, the sophomore has been tasked with marking the opposing team's top scoring threat, including No. 2/2 North Carolina's Aly Messinger, who totaled 67 goals in 2014. Fitzgerald, the BIG EAST Preseason Defensive Player of the Year, limited Messinger to just one tally in the Gators' setback to the Tar Heels.
In addition, she held Jacksonville's Brittney Orashen to zero points and the Wolverine's Jess Angerman also without a point – Angerman led Michigan with 44 points in 2014.
Joining Fitzgerald among the BIG EAST's weekly honorees were senior midfielder Shannon Gilroy and redshirt junior midfielder Nicole Graziano, who were both named to the Conference's Weekly Honor Roll.
Gilroy, tallied nine goals this week and moved into second-place on UF's all-time goal-scoring list. She now has 191 career goals and needs just 13 more to become the program's all-time leading scorer.
Graziano, who missed all of 2014 due to injury, totaled eight points off six goals and two assists, adding 10 draw controls and a team-high six ground balls. The redshirt-junior shined against the toughest competition with two goals, two assists, three ground balls, six draw controls and two caused turnovers against No. 2/2 North Carolina.
The trio and the rest of the Gators return to action on Friday (Feb. 20) when Florida hosts San Diego State at 6:30 p.m.
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