Analysis prior to the selection from BigRedMachine, a fellow lacrosse fan....
Like most I'm sure the Tewaaraton award boils down to Stukenberg and Ohlmiller and for those dazzled by the towering offensive numbers produced by Ohlmiller (as am I by the way) let me give you a few objective reasons why it won't automatically go her way.
Schedule: Stony Brook played only four matches versus top ten teams; Maryland, Florida, Colorado and USC (losing two of them) and three games versus the top twenty; Northwestern twice and Towson. The rest of the schedule is filled with a hodge podge of mostly mediocre to poor teams (Albany excepted). Now by my calculations Ohlmiller's production is 3 points less against ranked teams than non ranked teams (goals + assists). Maryland, by contrast, had the second highest strength of schedule in the nation (slightly less than Northwestern) playing ten games versus the top ten and 6 games against the top twenty. Reason would tell you had Ohlmiller played Maryland's schedule her point total would be quite a bit less, still very good but not one of historic proportions. Of course you have to play the teams on your schedule and while this projection wouldn't axiomatically play out there's no reason it shouldn't be a consideration in the selection of the Tewaaraton winner. After all if strength of schedule can be used as one of the factors in weighing unequal schedules for NCAA tournament seeding then there's no reason it can't be a consideration when measuring the relative performance of two players.
Performance: What are each teams needs and how do the respective players perform to contribute to the success of the team? Stony Brooks offense runs through Kylie Ohlmiller, even more so when Courtney Murphy went down with a season ending injury. She's the engine that makes the team's offense click. As such she's performed faultlessly and in so doing broke Jen Adams long held single season points record. It doesn't get much better than that. Contrast that to how Maryland uses Zoe Stuckenberg. The Terp's have a plethora of offensive weapons, all of whom can find the back of the net with great consistency or feed teammates for the same. The top six scorers range from a high of eighty-seven points down to seventy points (Stukenberg 2nd with 84 points) and the seventh producing 43. So Stukenberg is not a critical component to Maryland's offense running at peak effeciency but rather another arrow in the quiver (Maryland still managed to score sixteen goals against BC while she was being face guarded). Because of this even handed sharing arrangement your not going to see gaudy offensive stats from any of the Terp regulars. But where Stukenberg is really counted on for production is in the other non-glamorous hustle categories and, as a two year captain, to be the coaches on field liaison. She was an excellent part of Maryland's highly rated defense, rarely taking a set off, and was also ranked in the top three of all Maryland non goalie team stats. It's difficult to quantify the relative importance of each of these players to their teams success but we do know the success of one team versus the other. Can that be the overriding factor? Maybe?
NCAA Tournament: Yes the tournament is a big factor in the Tewaaraton selection. The goal of most teams is to qualify for the tournament with the ultimate prize winning the NCAA title. If that weren't the case the voting would occur at the end of the season prior to the tourney. Ohlmiller: Three games, 6 1/3 points/game average, 1/3 ground ball/game, 1/3 draw control/game, 0 caused turnovers. Stukenberg: Four games, 4 1/2 points/game, 1 1/5 ground balls/game, 3 1/4 draw controls/game, and 3/4 caused turnovers/game. Results: Stony Brook loses to Maryland in the quarters and Maryland wins the NCAA title.
Intangibles: Laxallnight refers to Stukenberg as the media darling but, for objectivity, go on to the Stony Brook website and read their write up of Ohlmiller. I don't know if I'd call Zoe Stukenberg a media darling but she is a very poised and thoughtful speaker. If you haven't done so already go to the post game interviews and listen to her moving tribute to her four years at Maryland. That aside she is the embodiment of the scholar athlete, one who evenly divides her time between those two callings and performs at peak efficiency in both. You cannot ask for or expect more from an individual.
I think both Ohlmiller and Stukenberg are deserving of the award and will have no problems whatsoever with the selection, whomever it may be. However, as TL has already mentioned, the real prize has already been won, this is just the icing.
