May 28, 2014
Recent Vanderbilt graduates and co-captains Alyssa Dunlap and Abby Wheeler have been selected to play in the 2014 Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association North-South All-Star Game.
The duo is two of 44 Division I lacrosse standouts – and 132 senior student-athletes in Division I, II and III – to play in the annual all-star game. This year’s games will be play on June 7 at Cabrini College in Radnor, Pa. Dunlap and Wheeler have been tabbed to play for the South squad at 11:30 a.m. (EST).
Fellow senior captain Brandi Byner was also chosen to play but will not play in the game due to a knee injury. The Franklin native led the team in caused turnovers for the second straight year with 25 and also topped the team with 32 ground balls. She started 62 games in her career.
Dunlap, a two-year captain from Villanova, Pa., added to a superb collegiate career with an outstanding senior season. She was named to the IWLCA All-West Region Second Team and to the American Lacrosse Conference First Team. The stingy defender ranked second on the team with 31 draw controls. She also had 29 ground balls and 16 caused turnovers.
She developed a reputation as a shut-down defender, often tasked with guarding the opposing team’s top players. She stifled the nation’s leading scorer, and ALC Midfielder of the Year, Florida’s Shannon Gilroy, on April 13. Gilroy scored two goals – her second-fewest of the season. But only one came against Dunlap – the other was on a free position shot – as she smothered Gilroy the entire game.
Dunlap started all 65 games of her career and tied for ninth-most games played in program history. She ranked seventh with 117 ground balls in her career and had 65 draw controls, which is eighth-most at VU.
Wheeler, a senior captain from Charlottesville, Va., was named to the ALC Second Team and led the team with a career-high 38 goals. That total ranked sixth in the conference. She also dished out seven assists.
She scored four goals or more five times this season. She notched a career-high seven goals, including two in the final 35 seconds of overtime, in a come-from-behind win against then-No. 13 Stanford on March 2. She was named the ALC Offensive Player of the Week the following week. The seven goals were the most for VU this season and second-most in program history.
