Ricucci Tabbed MAC Player of the Week
Annville, PA — Messiah College senior attack Nick Ricucci was named the Middle Atlantic Conference Player of the Week Monday, an honor coming after the Messiah College men’s lacrosse program rattled off is 25th and 26th consecutive regular-season league wins, earning the team the top seed in the upcoming MAC Playoffs.
Ricucci scored three goals and scooped four ground balls in a critical 14-12 win over Widener University Wednesday evening, then added a team-best five scores in the Falcons’ 11-8 win at DeSales University Saturday. Those numbers helped Ricucci to a team-leading 49 goals on the season, placing him sixth in the all-time program record books with 120 scores.
A transfer from Salisbury University and Germantown, Maryland native, Ricucci is Messiah’s second league player of the week honoree this season, joining junior Jeff Ziegler who captured the honor Apr. 14. DeSales’ Jarryd Stamaletos was named MAC Goalie/Defender of the Week Monday, in part due to recording 16 saves in Saturday’s loss to Messiah.
“Nick has been a large part of our offense and has a unique ability to get to the right spaces, catch passes and finish in tight,” said Messiah assistant coach John Dennis. “He is not afraid of getting hit or checked and in addition is a large part of why our attack has been so successful at riding teams and causing turnovers. Nick is hard working and hustles to create turnovers. He’s also not shy with producing big hits against defenders and goalies when riding. Teams have begun to try and shut him off in hopes that doing so will slow our offense, however, Nick has been patient in his role and found that he will still get his opportunities without trying to take control of the game and force things to happen.”
Ricucci — and Messiah — will get its next test in the post-season, as the team will host Fairleigh Dickinson University-Florham Wednesday in one of the MAC Semi-Finals. Game time is set for 4 p.m. at Anderson Field.
