The Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) recently announced the 2019 All-Conference Women's Lacrosse Teams, with four members from the University of Redlands making the cut. Senior midfielder Hanna Morford (West Linn, OR) played her way to the First Team for the third time in a row. Junior attacker Sadie Pickering (Tacoma, WA) lands on the Second Team for the second time in her career, while senior attacker Kelsey Ruhl (Seattle, WA) and senior defender Alexis Pound (Washington, DC) earn their inaugural Second-Team nods.
Morford proved to be an instrumental piece to the Bulldogs' success this season. While leading the conference in goals overall, Morford finished the season with 35 scores against SCIAC competition. She was also effective in free-position shots by converting 50% of her 18 opportunities to rank third in the conference. In addition, she registered 20 ground balls and 44 draw controls while also causing nine turnovers. Morford notched seven goals in a game on three separate occasions, including against Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges in early April.
Pickering returns to the Second Team after pocketing 15 goals and eight assists for 23 points against conference competition. More impressively, she made an impact everywhere on the field by snagging 10 ground balls, 13 draw controls, and eight caused turnovers. She earned a hat-trick against Whittier College twice this season, including a 17-7 victory where she added two assists to the effort.
En route to a 25-assist season for Ruhl, she dished out six of them in conference action to land her on the Second Team. Ruhl also added five goals for 11 points while also scooping up 10 ground balls and securing four draw controls. Defensively, she disrupted the opposing offense with eight caused turnovers. Ruhl also enjoyed solid games against Whittier College this year, with two assists and two caused turnovers against the Poets in March, and two goals and an assist in April. In one of her best defensive performances, she tallied three caused turnovers and two ground balls against Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges.
Rounding out the talented quartet, Pound shored up the Bulldogs' defense with 12 of her 15 caused turnovers coming against SCIAC competition. She also registered 17 ground balls, in addition to notching the first goal of her career, which came against Whittier College on her only shot attempt of the season. In one of Pound's strongest individual performances, she registered three caused turnovers and five ground balls at Chapman University.
For a complete list of this year's All-Conference teams, please visit the SCIAC's website.
Redlands finished the season fifth in the conference with an 8-8 overall record and a 2-8 mark in the SCIAC.