KATON EARNS NEILA ACADEMIC ALL-NEW ENGLAND HONORS

AMHERST, Mass. – Emmanuel College senior Matt Katon (East Falmouth, Mass.) has been named to the 2019 New England Intercollegiate Lacrosse Academic All-New England team, it was announced earlier today by the NEILA. Katon is one of One hundred and twenty-eight senior men's lacrosse student-athletes to earn NEILA Academic All-New England Honors. 

Members of the team are nominated by head coaches in Divisions 1, 2 and 3, and are comprised of student-athletes who have excelled both in the classroom and on the field over the course of their men's lacrosse career.

Katon earns NEILA All-New England honors following an All-Conference season in his final campaign with the Saints. He ranked first on the squad in both goals (47) and points (55) and scored a goal in all but one game during the regular season, including 13 games with two or more. His 47 goals were just one shy of the single-season program record at Emmanuel and on the year, he added 23 groundballs and eight caused turnovers.

Over his career, Katon appeared in 54 games and registered 96 points on 80 goals and 16 assists to rank fourth all-time in points, third all-time in goals and fifth all-time in points. The West Falmouth, Mass. native tallied nine man-up goals over his career which ranks seventh all-time.

Katon becomes just the second player in Emmanuel program history to earn NEILA Academic All-New England honors joining Tony Cibelli '17 in the club.

This year saw an increase of 36 student-athletes who meet the criteria, which requires that nominees must have senior standing, a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or better on a 4.0 scale, and be a significant enough player that he was nominated for at least All-Conference selection.

Brown University led all institutions with nine candidates this year, followed by Wesleyan University, who led Division 3 with 7 All-Academic selections. Overall, 51 different colleges and universities were represented across all three divisions.

Seven different schools from Division 1 made up the 26 All-Academic award winners, while 12 honorees represented six schools in Division 2, where Assumption, Bentley and Southern New Hampshire led the way with three student-athletes apiece.

Joining Wesleyan at the top of Division 3 were Clark and Rivier, who had six All-Academic selections each. In total, 90 Division 3 players representing 38 institutions made an appearance on this year's squads.

The Saints capped the 2019 season with an overall record of 3-14 and 3-5 in GNAC play to earn the No. 7 seed in the GNAC tournament field. Emmanuel fell to the eventual GNAC Championship in No. 2 Norwich University in the GNAC Quarterfinals and will graduate three members from the 2019 roster.

2019 NEILA Academic All-New England Team

*Release content courtesy of NEILA Communications Office