Men's Lacrosse | 6/29/2020 2:31:00 PM
Senior defender Kyle O'Dea on the nationally-ranked St. John Fisher College men's lacrosse team was recognized by the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association as one of 79 Division III student-athletes to be named to the USILA/Warrior and New Balance Scholar All-America Team. O'Dea was the lone Empire 8 student-athlete to earn this prestigious honor.
To be considered, a Scholar All-American must be nominated by his coach and be a student with a senior year academic standing and a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 (4.0 scale). He will have behaved in a manner that has brought credit to himself, his institution, and to college lacrosse both on and off the field. He must also be an All-American, a member of a North/South team, or an outstanding league or conference player.
A two-time captain, O'Dea was one of the conference's top long poles as the Victor native had been a part of a Cardinals' back line that surrendered fewer than eight goals on average in 2019 and was on pace to produce similar numbers in 2020.
O'Dea, who was named Second-Team All-Conference in each of the previous two seasons, ranked third on the team this season with five caused turnovers and collected eight ground balls over five games.
For his career, O'Dea played in 57 games including 56 starts and helped lead Fisher to a 40-19 record since the beginning of the 2017 season. The defenseman guided Fisher to a program record-17-3 outcome in 2019 as the Cardinals won their first-ever Empire 8 Championship before advancing all the way to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Division III Championship.
Overall, O'Dea accounted for 83 ground balls, 62 caused turnovers and one goal over his four-year career.
The announcement marks the third year in a row that Fisher has garnered the award with Andrew Rosso and Zach Wagner having been selected in 2018 and 2019, respectively.