May 29, 2008

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - Senior Whitney Richards has been named a Third-Team IWLCA/US Lacrosse All-American, as announced today by the Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Association. Richards, a First-Team Regional All-American, is Temple's first national All-American selection since 2002.

The Most Outstanding Player of the Atlantic 10 Tournament, Richards garnered first-team All A-10 honors. She was also voted a womenslacrosse.com Third-Team All-American earlier this week.

Richards had a breakout senior season, leading the Owls in goals (46), assists (32), groundballs (56) and caused turnovers (39) and draw controls (42). The senior garnered three A-10 Player of the Week awards on her way to the A-10 All-Tournament team. Voted womenslacrosse.com Player of the Week, Richards set a new A-10 record for caused turnovers in a tournament game when she earned six against Duquesne in the semi-finals. She finished the season ranked tied for sixth in the nation in caused turnovers, tied for 16th in groundballs, tied for 19th in points, 19th in assists, 23rd in assists per game and 27th in points per game. Richards also finished her career second all-time in caused turnovers, third in assists and draw controls and fourth in groundballs.

Led by Richards' first-team selection, seven A-10 lacrosse players were named Regional All-American selections earlier this season. Tyneisha Harris (Duquesne), Kathleen McNish (Duquesne), Kimberly Ross (St. Bonaventure), Mandy Friend (Richmond), Nicole Caniglia (Temple) and Berkley Summerlin (Temple) were all tabbed second-team All-Regional performers in their respective regions.