Rice a Candidate for 2015 Senior CLASS Award

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. – Syracuse senior attackman Kevin Rice is one of 20 candidates for the 2015 Senior CLASS Award in the sport of men's lacrosse. The award, presented annually to the most outstanding NCAA Division I student-athletes in several sports, focuses on the "Four C's" of classroom, character, community and competition.

Links: 2015 Senior CLASS Candidates | Kevin Rice Player Card

A 2015 team captain, Rice is a history major in Syracuse University's College of Arts and Sciences. He was named to the Capital One Academic All-America Second Team and the All-ACC Academic Team in 2014. In addition, Rice has earned SU Athletic Director's Honor Roll recognition (min. 3.0 GPA) in his first seven semesters on campus, and won the 2013 NCAA Elite 89 Award for maintaining the highest cumulative GPA of any player at the Final Four.

On the field, Rice is among the NCAA active leaders in assists (88), assists per game (1.9), points (157) and points per game (3.4). He currently leads the Orange in scoring with 19 points on nine goals and 10 assists. Against Virginia on March 1, Rice tallied three goals and four assists to win ACC Offensive Player of the Week honors.

This year's list of Senior CLASS Award candidates will be narrowed to 10 finalists later this season. Those 10 names will be placed on the ballot for nationwide voting by coaches, media and fans. The winner will be announced and recognized at the 2015 NCAA Lacrosse Championships in Philadelphia.

CLASS is an acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School. The program was launched during the 2001-02 season in response to the trend of college basketball players leaving early to turn professional. The award was conceived by sportscaster Dick Enberg and inspired by the story of former Duke basketball star Shane Battier, who could have been an NBA lottery pick but elected to return to college, led the Blue Devils to the national championship, and earned his degree.

Former SU lacrosse standout Mike Leveille won the award in 2008. Princeton's Tom Schreiber was last year's winner.

Syracuse University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Kevin Rice

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