Lydia Rudden graduated Stonehill as one of the school’s best-ever lacrosse players.
PHOTO/BRIAN FOLEY/STONEHILL COLLEGE

Stonehill College women’s lacrosse standout Lydia Rudden of Hopkinton was selected as one of the Northeast Conference’s two nominees for the 2023 NCAA Woman of the Year Award.

Now in its 33rd year, the NCAA Woman of the Year Award recognizes graduating female student-athletes who have exhausted their NCAA eligibility and distinguished themselves in academics, athletics, community service and leadership.

Rudden, named Stonehill’s Edward E. Martin Senior Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year and the NEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year recipient for women’s lacrosse, graduated in May with a Bachelor of Arts degree, having achieved a 3.88 cumulative grade point average as a philosophy major and business administration minor. The Moreau Honors Scholar at Stonehill will attend Boston College Law School as a juris doctor candidate and is the first student-athlete from the college to be named a conference nominee for Woman of the Year. She received the Outstanding Philosophy Student Award this spring, and was named to the dean’s list and athletic director’s honor roll all eight semesters, also earning spots on the NEC academic honor roll and commissioner’s honor roll for the spring season.

Rudden is a Moreau Honors Program mentor, writing tutor at the Center for Writing and Academic Achievement and teaching assistant at the Meehan School of Business. She was a member of the college’s mock trial team, served as an admissions event panelist and conducted philosophical research on ethical leadership to develop a capstone course for Stonehill’s ethical leadership minor. Rudden worked as a laboratory assistant at UMass Memorial Hospital assisting with COVID-19 testing during the pandemic.

Rudden is a two-time Academic All-District at-large honoree by College Sports Communicators and earned Northeast-10 academic all-conference honors as a sophomore and junior, also collecting the NE10 Scholar-Athlete Sport Excellence Award in 2022. She was named to the NE10 academic honor roll all six semesters prior to the college’s transition to NCAA Division 1 and is a three-time St. Thomas Aquinas, Patron Saint of Students, Medal recipient for having the highest cumulative GPA on the team.

Rudden served as a captain for the Stonehill women’s lacrosse program this past season as she earned All-NEC first team honors after leading the conference in scoring with 72 points and assists with 48 — ranking seventh nationally in assists and second with 3.20 assists per game. The assist total is tied for third on Stonehill’s all-time single-season list, along with her sister, Brooke Rudden (Class of 2015), behind her own single-season record of 77 assists in 2022. She also scored 24 goals this spring to rank fourth on the team, while adding 16 ground balls and five caused turnovers in 15 games.

Rudden, a two-time first team all-conference selection over her career, earned first team All-America and All-East Region honors from the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) as a junior. The 2022 NE10 Attack of the Year posted just the third 100-point season in program history in leading the Skyhawks to a sweep of the NE10 regular season and tournament championships as well as an NCAA tournament bid, finishing with a program-record 119, on her way to 237 points in 49 career games to rank eighth all-time at Stonehill with 83 goals and a program-record 154 assists.

The Woman of the Year Selection Committee will select the top 10 honorees in each division in early September. The 30 honorees will be whittled down to nine finalists (three from each division) at the end of the month. The NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics will cast votes among the nine finalists to determine the 2023 Woman of the Year.

Stonehill finished its inaugural NCAA Division 1 season tied for third in the final NEC standings with a 5-3 mark.

Locals shine at Wheaton

Hopkinton products Tommy Ambrosone and Josh Fischer were members of the Wheaton College baseball team that advanced to the NCAA Division 3 Super Regional round before falling in a best-of-three series to top-ranked Johns Hopkins in late May.

Ambrosone, a junior outfielder, started 29 of the 30 games in which he played, batting .343 with 13 RBI.

Fischer, a junior left-handed pitcher who transferred from Fairfield, appeared in 10 games, six in relief, and went 2-1 with a 4.06 ERA. He recorded 32 strikeouts in 37 2/3 innings.

Wheaton went 42-9 overall and 16-1 in the NEWMAC and won the conference tournament championship for the third straight year. The Lyons finished the season ranked 11th nationally by D3Baseball.com. …

Also at Wheaton, junior catcher Jill Ceddia had a solid season for the Lyons softball team, batting .322 with 21 RBI while starting 36 of the 38 games in which she played. Wheaton finished with a record of 22-18 (8-10 NEWMAC). …

Kate Powers, who just completed her freshman season on the track and field team at the University of Kentucky, was named to the Southeastern Conference first-year academic honor roll.