SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Southern Conference regular-season champion Jacksonville has earned three of the four individual specialty awards and High Point’s Asher Nolting has been named the SoCon Offensive Player of the Year for the third time in his career as the league announced its men’s lacrosse all-conference and all-freshman teams Tuesday. JU defenseman Colin Hinton was named the Defensive Player of the Year, teammate Jackson Intrieri was tabbed the Freshman of the Year and Dolphin skipper John Galloway was selected Coach of the Year in balloting of the league’s six head coaches.
 
Coaches were not allowed to vote for their own players or themselves. The all-conference second team features one additional midfielder due to a tie in the voting.
 
Nolting, a fifth-year attackman from Greenwood Village, Colorado, leads the SoCon and ranks fifth in NCAA Division I with 5.57 points per game and leads the league and ranks second nationally with 3.36 assists per game. He has totaled 78 points this season, second-most in a season in SoCon history behind only his own record of 92 from 2019, when he earned his second straight Offensive Player of the Year award. Nolting’s 47 assists this season are just one shy of his own record, which he also set in 2019. In a storied career with no shortage of highlights, Nolting added one more this season, scoring a career-best 11 points in High Point’s 18-8 win over Detroit Mercy on March 26, producing five goals and six assists on the day. Nolting, a two-time SoCon Offensive Player of the Week and the March Offensive Player of the Month this season, enters postseason play ranking 10th in NCAA DI history with 341 career points. One of 25 nominees for the Tewaaraton Award, he is now the only player in SoCon men’s lacrosse history to earn first-team All-SoCon honors four times and the only three-time Player of the Year in league history. The Offensive Player of the Year award is the fourth for High Point, as Dan Lomas won the inaugural award in 2015.
 
Hinton has totaled 37 ground balls and 14 caused turnovers for Jacksonville this season. The graduate defenseman from Kensington, Maryland, has recorded multiple caused turnovers in four contests this season, including a season-high four to complement three ground balls in a 25-4 win over St. John’s on March 26 en route to the first of two SoCon Defensive Player of the Week honors this season. Hinton claimed his second weekly award after grabbing three ground balls and causing three turnovers in a 13-11 win over then-No. 17 Richmond on April 9. Hinton has anchored a defense that has posted a league-low 8.74 goals against average, holding eight of 15 opponents under 10 goals. He is the Dolphins’ second SoCon Defensive Player of the Year, joining Hunter Forbes, who won the award in 2018.
 
Intrieri is Jacksonville’s first SoCon Freshman of the Year. The rookie attackman from Ambler, Pennsylvania, is third on the squad and sixth in the SoCon with 52 points for an average of 3.47 per game. Intieri has scored 24 goals and logged a program-record 28 assists, which rank third in the SoCon, while his 1.87 helpers per game rank 27th in Division I. Intrieri, who has started every game of his young career, has scored at least one point in all 15 games this season, notching at least three points in eight contests. His best game of the season came in a 25-6 win over VMI on April 16 in which he scored nine points – second-most in a game in program history – on seven goals and two assists, earning SoCon Offensive Player of the Week distinction.
 
Galloway earns his second SoCon Coach of the Year honor and first since 2018 after directing the Dolphins to a school-record 13 wins and a top-10 national ranking. The sixth-year coach brings his program into the postseason with a 13-2 overall mark and led Jacksonville to its first SoCon regular-season title with an unblemished 5-0 league record. Galloway’s squad paces the SoCon on offense and defense, leading the league in goals per game (16.73) as well as goals against average. JU opened the season with an 11-8 loss to then-No. 16 Johns Hopkins before knocking off then-No. 2 Duke, 14-12. The Dolphins moved into the national rankings the next day and have been there ever since, peaking at No. 6 in the Nike/USA Lacrosse Magazine poll and adding wins over ranked Denver and Richmond squads along the way. Galloway’s team enters the SoCon Men’s Lacrosse Championship as the No. 1 seed and seeking its first title.
 
Jacksonville led the way with nine all-conference selections, including a league-best seven first-team selections. The Dolphins, who had at least one all-conference pick at every position except for faceoff specialist, had two of the three first-team defensemen in Hinton and Dixon Smith.
 
Richmond followed with eight overall selections, including three on the first team and a league-leading five second-team picks. Leading the way for the Spiders is graduate attackman Ryan Lanchbury, the 2021 SoCon Offensive Player of the Year who is now a three-time first-team All-SoCon pick and one of 25 nominees for the Tewaaraton Award. He is the league’s career goals scored leader with 159.
 
High Point, Mercer and VMI had one first-team selection each, while Mercer had five total selections (four on the second team) and HPU had four total selections (three second-teamers). Mercer’s first-team pick was faceoff specialist Ashton Wood, the league’s career leader in faceoff wins (633), faceoff winning percentage (.645), ground balls (363) and ground balls per game (9.07).
 
Richmond led the way with four of the six All-Freshman selections, three of whom – defenseman Griffin Kology, faceoff specialist Jared Chenoy and goalkeeper Zach Vigue – also earned second-team All-SoCon honors. JU’s Intrieri and VMI’s Luke Rusterucci round out the squad.
 
The Southern Conference Men’s Lacrosse Championship begins Thursday at High Point’s Vert Stadium. No. 1 seed Jacksonville will face No. 4 seed VMI on Thursday at 5 p.m. in the day’s first semifinal, followed by No. 2 seed Richmond against defending champion and No. 3 seed High Point at 8 p.m. The title game will be Saturday at 12 p.m. All three contests will air live on ESPN+, with Jason Patterson and Phil Cox on the call.
              
 
Offensive Player of the Year
Asher Nolting, High Point, 5th, A
 
Defensive Player of the Year
Colin Hinton, Jacksonville, Sr., D
 
Freshman of the Year
Jackson Intrieri, Jacksonville, A
 
Coach of the Year
John Galloway, Jacksonville
 
 
All-Southern Conference
First team
A                Asher Nolting, High Point, 5th
A                Max Waldbaum, Jacksonville, Gr.
A                Ryan Lanchbury, Richmond, Gr.
M               Jack Dolan, Jacksonville, Gr.
M               Luke Frankeny, Richmond, Gr.
M               Hartley Jordan, VMI, Jr.
D                Colin Hinton, Jacksonville, Gr.
D                Dixon Smith, Jacksonville, Gr.
D                Ray Baran, Richmond, R-Sr.
GK             Luke Millican, Jacksonville, Gr.
FO             Ashton Wood, Mercer, Sr.
SSM           Troy Hettinger, Jacksonville, R-Jr.
LSM           Jordan Young, Jacksonville, R-Jr.
 
Second team
A                Jacob Greiner, Jacksonville, R-So.
A                Sean Goldsmith, Mercer, Sr.
A                Dalton Young, Richmond, Jr.
M               Hunter Vines, High Point, Sr.
M               Ethan LaMond, Jacksonville, R-Fr.
M               Matthew Winegardner, Mercer, So.
M               Lance Madonna, Richmond, So.
D                PJ Peters, High Point, Gr.
D                Wesley Chairs, Mercer, Jr.
D                Griffin Kology, Richmond, Fr.
GK             Zach Vigue, Richmond, R-Fr.
FO             Jared Chenoy, Richmond, Fr.
SSM           Garrett LeClaire, Mercer, Sr.
LSM           Trey Smith, High Point, Sr.
 
All-Freshman
Jackson Intrieri, Jacksonville, A
Jared Chenoy, Richmond, FO
Griffin Kology, Richmond, D
Tommy Stull, Richmond, LSM
Zach Vigue, Richmond, GK
Luke Rusterucci, VMI, A