2024 MBWA AWARDS WOMEN'S DIVISION II STAC's Ericson Repeats as Player of the Year; Mercy's Lagas Earns Coach Accolade

NEW YORK (April 12, 2024) – Sarah Ericson of St. Thomas Aquinas College has repeated with top honors as the All-Met Division II women’s college basketball Player of the Year for 2023-24, it was announced Friday by the Met Basketball Writers Association.

Scott Lagas of Mercy University was named Coach of the Year.
 

The rest of the All-Met First Team: Erin Leary, St. Thomas Aquinas; Cayla Howard, Dominican; Jaclyn Stanavich and Katie Wall, Mercy; Jahnel Lewis, Caldwell.

The All-Met Second Team: Jenalyse Alarcon, Staten Island; Brianna Davis, Queens; Jenna Jordan, Adelphi; Tower Lorde, Pace; Taneshia Tucker, Bloomfield; Ane Valle, Felician.

The 2023-24 All-Met teams will be honored at the 91st MBWA Haggerty Awards dinner on Thursday, April 18, at the Sleepy Hollow Hotel & Conference Center in Tarrytown, NY. The Haggerty dinner is the longest running, media-managed college basketball awards program in the United States.

A 5-7 junior guard from Norwich, CT, Ericson --- who was MBWA co-player of the year in 2023, and this season was named to the East Coast Conference First Team and the D2CCA All-East Region First Team --- led the Spartans (18-12, 11-5 ECC) in scoring with 479 points (No. 3 ECC) for a 16.0 points per game average (No. 4 ECC). She also averaged 8.2 rebounds, and a team-leading 2.7 assists and 1.9 steals, while shooting 42.4% from the field (No. 1 ECC) and 86.2% (No. 1 ECC, No. 24 in the nation) at the free throw line.

As a team, STAC finished tied for third place during the ECC regular season and then, after winning a first round game, lost to Mercy in the semis of the conference tournament.

Over the course of 88 games in her three seasons in Sparkill, NY, Ericson now has amassed 1,144 career points, 712 rebounds, 278 assists and 137 steals. She was selected for the MBWA All-Met Second Team as a freshman.

This is the fourth time a Spartan has been named All-Meet Division II women’s Player of the Year, following Ericson’s shared status last season, and preceded by Jenna Erickson (2018) and Ruth Adams (2020).

In his sixth year at the helm, Lagas --- who also was named the East Coast Conference coach of the year --- guided the Mavericks to a 20-10 overall record (a long way from his 4-24 first season), a second-place finish (12-4) during the ECC regular season and an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.

For Mercy, it was a program record for most conference victories, most overall wins since 1984-85, fourth straight ECC Tournament appearance and first berth in the conference’s championship game. The Mavs ended the regular season on a nine-game winning streak, longest since 1985, the only other time MU has played in the NCAAs. The team suffered a Division II East Regional loss last month to top-seeded and homestanding Bentley.

Lagas is the first coach from Mercy to be named MBWA women’s Coach of the Year. Prior to being hired at the school in Dobbs Ferry, NY --- where his won-loss record over six seasons is 61-87 --- he coached at LIU Post, and in high school at Archbishop Molloy and St. Mary’s. He has a degree from Queens College in Exercise and Nutrition (1999) and another in Business and Sports Management from Southern New Hampshire University (2017), and lives in Floral Park, NY.

For a list of previous Women's Division II Awards:
Players of the Year - Coaches of the Year