Wheeling, W. Va. - On Monday, the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (GMAC) announced their weekly award winners and Wheeling Men's Lacrosse was able to sweep both Men's Lacrosse awards. For the second week in a row, freshman Goalie Joshua Wolford was named the GMAC's Defender of the Week while sophomore Mike Andersson won his first GMAC Men's Lacrosse Player of the Week Award. Both players played big roles in their team's 14-3 win over St. Thomas Aquinas and helped the team surpass their 2021 win total in their sixth game of the season.
The Cardinals 14 goals were the most scored in a game since they scored 17 goals against Dominican (NY.) back on March 31st, 2019. Seven of those 14 goals came from Andersson, who tied the school record with seven goals, a record that was set by former Cardinal Dereck Downs back on March 4th, 2017. Andersson scored four of those seven goals in the second quarter and had a chance to break the record in the waning seconds of the game. He got the ball in his stick with 25 seconds to go but shot wide on what would be his final shot of the day.
To go along with the seven goals, Andersson also led the team in shots (17) and Shots on Goal (12) and had one ground ball to round out the day. Andersson now has 17 goals on the season, setting a new career-high and leading the team this season. He has scored a team-high 29 points and currently leads the GMAC in goals (17) and is second in the GMAC with 51 shots taken. It is the fourth time this season that Andersson has scored multiple goals in a game and is the second hat trick effort for the sophomore this season.
On the defensive side of the ball, Wheeling allowed just three goals, the fewest they have allowed in a game since they defeated Davis & Elkins 33-3 back on April 6th, 2016. Helping to facilitate that effort was freshman Joshua Wolford in net, who allowed a career-low three goals on 11 shots faced on Sunday. He made eight saves on the afternoon and while he wasn't under a whole lot of pressure, he was able to squander the Spartans offensive chances when they had them.
Wolford has had double digit saves multiple times throughout the season but has now been rewarded for his efforts with the first two wins of his collegiate career. He has made 91 saves in 379 minutes in net this season while compiling a save percentage of .444. Wolford has the sixth highest save percentage in the conference and has become a staple in net for the Cardinals during his first season in the black and red.
Wolford and Andersson are the 23rd and 24th Wheeling University Student-Athletes to win weekly honors and are the second and third members of the Men's Lacrosse team to do so. For Wolford, it is the second week in a row that he has earned the Defender of the Week honor, and for Anderson it is the first GMAC weekly honor of his career.
The Wheeling University Men's Lacrosse team returns to action on Saturday, March 19th, when they hit the road to face GMAC opponent Mercyhurst with face-off at 3 PM.
