Cavaliers Now

Connor Shellenberger Named a Tewaaraton Finalist for Third-Straight Year

Matt Newton

Connor Shellenberger looks to pass during the Virginia men's lacrosse game against Albany at Klockner Stadium.
Connor Shellenberger looks to pass during the Virginia men's lacrosse game against Albany at Klockner Stadium. / Virginia Athletics

For the first time in program history, a Virginia men's lacrosse player has been named a Tewaaraton finalist three times over the course of a single career. Senior attackman Connor Shellenberger was named one of five finalists for college lacrosse's most prestigious individual award for the third-straight season. Shellenberger is joined by Yale attackman Matt Brandau, Duke attackman Brennan O'Neill, Notre Dame goalie Liam Entenmann, and Notre Dame attackman Pat Kavanagh as the finalists for the 2024 Tewaaraton Award, as announced by the Tewaaraton Foundation on Thursday.

Virginia has had 13 finalists for the Tewaaraton Award, which has honored the top college lacrosse player in the country annually since 2001. Connor Shellenberger and Pat Kavanagh are two of just eight players to be named three-time finalists for the award. Shellenberger is looking to join Chris Rotelli (2003), Matt Ward (2006), and Steele Stanwick (2011) as the fourth Cavalier to win the Tewaaraton Award.

Shellenberger, who on Tuesday was selected by the New York Atlas with the No. 2 overall pick in the first round of the 2024 PLL College Draft, is the ACC's leader in assists per game, averaging 3.0 assists per game, and is second in the conference in points per game at 4.93. This season, he broke the ACC's all-time career assists record and became UVA's all-time program leader in career assists and points.

The 2024 Tewaaraton Award winners will be selected at the end of the season and will be announced on Thursday, May 30th at the Tewaaraton Ceremony at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.

Shellenberger will lead No. 6 seed Virginia (10-5) against Saint Joseph's in the first round of the 2024 NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship on Saturday at 12pm at Klockner Stadium.

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Matt Newton

MATT NEWTON

Managing Editor and Publisher, CavaliersNow Email: mattnewton@virginia.eduTwitter: @mattynewtssWebsite | LinkedIn | Instagram Matt Newton is the managing editor and publisher at CavaliersNow. He has been covering UVA athletics since 2019 and has been the managing editor at CavaliersNow since launching the site in August 2021. Matt covers all things UVA sports, including Virginia basketball and football news and recruiting, former Wahoos in the pros, and coverage of all 23 of the NCAA Division I sports teams at the University of Virginia. A native of Downingtown, Pennsylvania, Matt grew up a huge Philadelphia sports fan, but has also been a UVA sports fanatic his entire life thanks to his parents, who are alums of the University of Virginia. Matt followed in his parents' footsteps and attended UVA from 2017-2021, graduating with a degree in Media Studies and a minor in Economics in May of 2021.