Men’s Lacrosse Sees Seven Earn GNAC All-Conference Honors

WINTHROP, Mass. – After an 11-7 season that concluded in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Semifinals, seven members of the Rivier men's lacrosse team have been selected to represent the Raiders on the GNAC All-Conference Teams.

Seniors Michael Ference and Coby Mercier each earned First Team honors while their classmates Robert DelPrete, Adam Hailey, and Sawyer Gagnon were placed on the Second Team. The lone Third Team member for the Raiders was junior Chris Heitmiller while senior Alan Cozzolino landed on the All-Sportsmanship Team.

Ference had a tremendous senior campaign as he notched a team-leading 78 points on 40 goals and 38 assists. His points total was third-best in the conference. The Salem, N.H. native started in all 18 games for the Raiders, grabbing 31 ground balls and causing 13 turnovers.

Mercier finished third on the squad in points with 63 on 33 goals. In 18 appearances, he nabbed 28 ground balls and had 13 caused turnovers in 2024.

DelPrete and Hailey were big parts of the Rivier defensive unit which stood firm in front of Gagnon. DelPrete and Hailey recorded nine and 26 caused turnovers, respectively, while registering 22 and 47 ground balls apiece. Hailey's ground ball numbers put him 11th conference-wide.

These three student-athletes were a major part of the Raiders' clearing efforts which produced an 83.6% success rate this season as the team went 291-for-348.

Individually, Gagnon had a tremendous year in between the pipes for Rivier, posting the league's third-best save percentage of .574, making 170 saves on 296 shots. He finished with a 7-6 record, starting in 14 of the 18 contests this season, including the quarterfinal clash with JWU-Providence in which he made 14 saves on 17 shots.

Cozzolino was seen in 16 matchups this season for the Raiders, notching goals against Albertus Magnus and Anna Maria. The senior was a major leader on and off the field for head coach Jay Delanoy's squad, earning him sportsmanship recognition.

The Raiders will look to build off the momentum of advancing to this year's semifinal round in 2025.