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Alex Woodall Wins Cascade Rookie of the Year Award

October 5, 2019 - Major League Lacrosse (MLL) News Release


Boston - Alex Woodall of the Atlanta Blaze has been awarded the Cascade Rookie of the Year Award at the 2019 MLL Honors at Union Station in Denver, CO. on Saturday.

The first overall pick in the 2019 MLL Collegiate Draft led MLL in groundballs with 140, groundball faceoffs with 138 and finished second in the league with 255 faceoff wins in 16 games played. Woodall's contributions helped the Blaze make the MLL Playoffs for the first time in team history finishing with the fourth best record in the league.

Woodall was able to beat out the other finalists for the Cascade Rookie of the Year Award, which were Chris Aslanian of the Denver Outlaws and Justin Pugal of the Boston Cannons. Aslanian finished the season with 42 points (22 goals, 20 assists) in 14 games played as he finished seventh in the league for assists and helped the Outlaws get back to the postseason with the second best record in the league. Pugal finished the year with 26 groundballs, 13 ground ball turnovers and 14 caused turnovers in 13 games played as he contributed to the Cannons returning to the playoffs for the first time since 2015. Pugal also received more votes than any other player in the inaugural MLL Honors Fan Vote.

With his exemplary rookie season, Woodall is now the first player in Atlanta Blaze history to win the Rookie of the Year Award. He finished with 30 more groundballs and 31 more faceoff groundballs than the next highest player in the league (Max Adler with 110 groundballs and Adler/Kevin Reisman with 107 faceoff groundballs). For his team, he finished with 72 more groundballs than the next highest player on the Blaze (Chris Madalon with 68 groundballs) and took all but three faceoffs for the team during the season.

The Rookie of the Year winner went to Towson University and finished his collegiate career with 351 groundballs and an overall faceoff percentage of 64.7% in a total of 45 games played. In his senior year, he was selected to the USILA Second Team All-American and All-ECAC First Team and was named a nominee for the Tewaaraton Trophy. He was selected with the first overall selection in the 2019 MLL Collegiate Draft.

"Alex is a great young man who has a bright future in Major League Lacrosse." Liam Banks, head coach of the Blaze says. "This year he was a huge factor in the success of the Atlanta Blaze. I know Alex has just scratched the surface with his potential. I am excited to see how Alex continues to develop in years to come. Congrats to him on an outstanding season."

The Chesapeake Bayhawks will play the Denver Outlaws for the MLL Championship on Sunday at 1:00 P.M. EDT/ 11:00 MDT at Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, CO. The MLL Championship Game will air live on ESPN2. Tickets are currently available on majorleaguelacrosse.com.

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