Lacrosse Player Mark Koontz Named to Academic All-District Team

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May 16, 2002

Charlottesville, Va. – Virginia lacrosse player Mark Koontz is one of 11 student-athletes named to the Verizon Academic All-District III university men’s at-large team. He is the only lacrosse player on a squad that is comprised of athletes in sports other than baseball, football, basketball, soccer and track.

A senior from Upper Arlington, Ohio, Koontz carries a 3.476 GPA and is slated to graduate this weekend with a degree in commerce, finance concentration. He has accepted a position with the Wall Street investment banking firm Goldman Sachs following graduation.

Despite playing with a cast to protect a wrist broken during offseason conditioning, Koontz was assigned to the opposition’s top attackman. Koontz shut down some of the top offensive players in the nation and helped Virginia compile a 10-3 overall record. He was named the ACC’s Player of the Year, the first defenseman to win the league’s highest honor since 1992. In addition, he was named to the All-ACC squad for the third year in a row. He is the first defenseman in school history and fourth in league history to be a three-time selection.

His season came to a premature end after he tore his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in a win over Duke on April 13. He returned six days later and played without incident in UVa’s win over North Carolina in the semifinals of the ACC Tournament. In the finals against Duke on April 21, he aggravated his injury and underwent reconstructive surgery on the knee last week.

The Cavaliers face Cornell in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament Sunday (May 19) at 3 p.m. at Homewood Field on the campus of Johns Hopkins University.

Virginia’s annual commencement exercises are also occuring Sunday, but Koontz and his graduating teammates will graduate in a special ceremony Monday at 10 a.m.