Tanner Scales Named ACC Men's Lacrosse Freshman of the Year

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April 30, 2013

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Tanner Scales has been named the Atlantic Coast Conference’s Freshman of the Year, an honor voted on by the league’s four head coaches.

Scales (Denver, Colo.) leads the nation’s freshmen with 25 caused turnovers and only two sophomores in the nation have more than the UVa defenseman. The 25 caused turnovers also rank No. 22 in the nation overall.

Scales becomes the first UVa player to win the award since Steele Stanwick in 2009. He is also the first UVa defensemen to win the award since Mike Schattner in 1988, the first of UVa’s 11 recipients. Goalie Tillman Johnson in 2001 is the only other non-offensive player to win the award for UVa.

Scales appeared in all 15 of UVa’s game, but didn’t crack the starting lineup until the Cavaliers’ home game with No. 2 Cornell on March 9 when he created three turnovers and forced Tewaaraton Trophy front-runner Rob Pannell into two of his career-high eight turnovers. Pannell has turned the ball over no more than four times in any other game this season and Scales dislodged the All-American various times during the defensemen’s first career start.

Scales started UVa’s final nine games of the season in the nation’s toughest schedule. Scales registered at least three caused turnovers in six games and caused a career-high four turnovers against Vermont. He picked up 33 ground balls in his rookie campaign, including season-high five against both VMI and at Duke.

North Carolina’s Marcus Holman was named the ACC Offensive Player of the Year, while Duke’s Brendan Fowler garnered ACC Defensive Player of the Year accolades. This is the second season that the ACC has given out player of the year awards to an offensive and defensive player. North Carolina’s Joe Breschi was named the league’s Coach of the Year.