PHOTO BY OLIVIA FALCIGNO/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
The Boston University men’s lacrosse coach Ryan Polley was selected as the Patriot League Coach of the Year and senior goalkeeper Christian Carson-Banister was named Goalkeeper of the Year. Five other Terriers (11-3, 5-3 Patriot League) were honored with postseason awards.
BU currently boasts its best seasonal record in the program’s four-year history and clinched a spot in its first Patriot League tournament.
After a stellar 10-4 win over Lehigh University in the quarterfinals, the Terriers will go to Baltimore to play the United States Army Academy.
Polley has led the Terriers to improve their record each year since the team’s first game against Mercer University on Feb. 8, 2014.
“It’s very humbling and honoring to be recognized, but really it has everything to do with our players and our staff,” Polley said. “It’s an individual award for me, but it’s a program award so we certainly wouldn’t be recognized if we didn’t have such an astounding year on the field and it has everything to do with the players and then certainly the coaching staff worked really hard.”
Polley also cites the 18 seniors as the foundation of the program.
“They’ve been everything,” he said. “They’ve built it. They took us to the next level with the Loyola win and they’ve just been great character people all while building it. They’ve been great players, but they’ve also been great off the field … They just kind of really realized what it takes to be a really successful program so really happy for them and really happy that we’re having such a great year.”
Away from the statistics and rankings, Polley has also remained a mentor and influence for the senior class over the past four years.
“He’s stayed committed to us when times have been really tough,” Carson-Banister said, “And that says a lot about a person to be able to endure some really tough times and he stuck with us; loved us, cared for us, mentored us and has just done a wonderful job. I’m really, really proud and happy for him to earn this accolade. It’s very well-deserved.”
Carson-Banister, who has remained the backbone of the team, was a unanimous choice for Goalkeeper of the Year. The Dallas native is ranked fourth in the nation with a 0.593 save percentage and second in the Patriot League with a 8.25 goals-against average.
“It’s really exciting,” Carson-Banister said. “It feels great. It was obviously a goal that I had set forward with the coaching staff as something I wanted to accomplish last year and something that I’ve really worked hard for, but it’s a testament to everything that the defense has done this year. The stats that I’ve been able to accumulate is because of them and because of coach [Stephen] Toomy’s ability to kind of manipulate offenses to shoot where we want to see shots.”
The team’s leading goal-scorer senior attacker Cal Dearth was a unanimous selection for the All-Patriot League First Team while senior defenseman Dominick Calisto was also named to First Team.
Senior long-stick midfielder Greg Wozniak, junior attacker Jack Wilson and sophomore attacker and midfielder Brendan Homire were named to the All-Patriot League Second Team.
“It’s just a huge honor to those guys and how hard they worked and the talent that they have and the dedication to getting better at their particular position and task,” Polley said. “I’m just really excited for them.”
The team is currently ranked 18th in the nation and possesses a top-ranked defense and offense, which sheds light on the future of the program.
“We’re starting to be noticed as one of the premiere programs out there and we just want to keep growing,” Polley said. “So it means that we can quickly build this and we’re going to be attractive to some of the best student-athletes in the country and we just want to continue to build upon that.”
