On Wednesday, in advance of the 2018 Atlantic 10 Conference Championship, the league announced its major women’s lacrosse honors. Richmond’s Julie Ball ’15 earned Defensive Player of the Year honors! In her breakout junior year, Ball became the first Spider to earn Defensive Player of the Year honors since 2014. Additionally, she was named a First Team All-Conference selection.
This season, Ball led the Spider defense to a No. 3 national ranking in scoring defense (8.31). Currently, she ranks fifth nationally in caused turnovers per game (2.76). Ball caused 47 turnovers so far this season, already a Richmond single-season record. In her junior year campaign, Ball was named the A-10 Defensive Player of the Week three times. She collected 43 ground balls on the year, which ranks eighth in the conference. Ball helped the Spider defense post the third-best goals against average in the country, allowing only 8.31 goals per game.
In their final regular season game, the Spiders defeated St. Bonaventure to clinch the A-10 regular season title. Ball and her teammates will face off against St. Joseph’s this afternoon at 4pm in the A-10 championship semifinals.
A post-graduate student-athlete at Deerfield, Ball was a varsity letter winner in soccer, basketball and lacrosse.
Congratulations Julie! We will be cheering you on from the Pioneer Valley!