COLONIA, NJ – The East Coast Conference announced its 2025 Women’s Lacrosse All-Conference honorees and major award winners on Thursday morning in the midst of the 2025 ECC Women’s Lacrosse Championship. Mercy senior defender Lindsey Shimborske (Farmingdale, NY) earned Defender of the Year honors for the third straight season while the Roberts Wesleyan senior duo of attacker Emma Blumenstock (Penfield, NY) and netminder Shawna Lesmerises (Merrimack, NH) repeated as the Attacker of the Year and Goalkeeper of the Year, respectively.
Wasting no time making her mark on the conference scene, Mercy freshman midfielder Ashlinn Kelly (Farmingdale, NY) was voted the Midfielder of the Year and Rookie of the Year while Mavs head coach Dawn Sachs earned Coach of the Year honors from her peers. All voting was completed by the league’s seven head coaches.
With 112 draw controls, 57 ground balls, and 46 caused turnovers in 15 games, Shimborske anchored a Mercy defense that allowed just 9.47 goals per game, which led the ECC and ranked Top 30 nationally. The senior defender topped the ECC with 7.47 draw controls per game (seventh nationally), and sat second with 3.80 ground balls per game (12th nationally) and 2.40 caused turnovers per game (21st nationally). Against ECC competition, the four-time ECC Defensive Player of the Week totaled 44 draw controls across six games and dominated on the defensive end with three ground balls, four caused turnovers, and 10 draw controls against Molloy, four ground balls, three caused turnovers, and 10 draw controls against St. Thomas Aquinas, five ground balls and seven caused turnovers against District of Columbia, and six ground balls, three caused turnovers, and six draw controls against Roberts Wesleyan. Earlier in the season, Shimborske also went off for 17 draw controls against Adelphi.
Blumenstock led the ECC in points for the second year in a row, posting 94 on 43 goals and a conference-leading 51 assists (seventh nationally); her average of 3.77 assists per game ranks second across all of NCAA Division II. The two-time ECC Offensive Player of the Week totaled at least three points in all six conference games, including 10 (4G, 6A) against District of Columbia, eight (4G, 4A) against Daemen, six (1G, 5A) against St. Thomas Aquinas, five (1G, 4A) against D’Youville, four (2G, 2A) against Molloy), and three (1G, 2A) against Mercy. Blumenstock added three more double-digit point efforts on the year, with 14 (6G, 8A) against Bridgeport and 11 in back-to-back games against Southern New Hampshire (6G, 5A) and American International (5G, 6A) back in early March.
Lesmerises went 7-7 overall (5-1 ECC) with an 11.65 goals against average and .437 save percentage with 110 saves. The senior goalkeeper anchored RWU’s defensive unit in ECC play, making nine stops in back-to-back wins over Molloy and D’Youville before holding St. Thomas Aquinas to just one goal and blanking District of Columbia in her next two outings. Lesmerises then made nine stops against in her fifth ECC win over Daemen before recording 14 stops vs. 10 goals allowed in the season finale at Mercy.
Kelly was a key piece for the Mavs this spring, ranking second on the squad in points (57), goals (44), AND caused turnovers (24) and third in assists (13). The Mercy freshman midfielder and five-time ECC Rookie of the Week ranked fourth in the conference in caused turnovers per game (1.60) and seventh in the conference in points per game (3.80) and goals per game (2.93), topping ECC rookies in all three categories.
Kelly came up big in conference games, starting off ECC play with four points (2G, 2A) against Daemen before putting up six points (4G, 2A) against Molloy. She added back-to-back five-point games (4G, 1A) against St. Thomas Aquinas and D’Youville, also putting up two ground balls, three caused turnovers, and seven draw controls against the Saints. She closed out her rookie regular season with a season-high eight points (5G, 3A) against District of Columbia and three goals with four caused turnovers against Roberts Wesleyan.
In her 13th year at the helm of the Mavericks, Sachs led Mercy to a 9-6 overall record and 5-1 mark in ECC play along with its fifth ECC Regular Season Championship and the No. 1 seed in this week’s ECC Women’s Lacrosse Championship. The Mavericks were ranked in this season’s IWLCA national Top 25 eight times this season and sit in the Top 20 of NCAA Division II in shot percentage (.499, 14th), draw control percentage (.579, 16th), draw controls per game (15.60, 18th), and clearing percentage (.871, 19th).
2025 ECC Women’s Lacrosse All-Conference
First Team
A - Emma Blumenstock, Roberts Wesleyan
A - Sydney Gordon, D’Youville
A - Leah Hansen, Mercy
A - Annie Mulhall, Roberts Wesleyan
A - Megan Rugolo, Molloy
M - Ella Bouley, Daemen
M - Ashlinn Kelly, Mercy
M - Sofia Quitoni, Molloy
M - Kadie Tierney, Roberts Wesleyan
M - Riley Wallace, Mercy
D - Carly Howell, Molloy
D - Emily Marino, Mercy
D - Lindsey Shimborske, Mercy
D - Emma Taylor, Roberts Wesleyan
GK - Shawna Lesmerises, Roberts Wesleyan
GK - Brynn Stworzydlak, D’Youville
Second Team
A - Madison Buck, D’Youville
A - Maeghan Callow, Mercy
A - Ella Dossier, Roberts Wesleyan
A - Madison Handley, D’Youville
A - Alexa Amorison, Molloy
M - Cameron Briggs, Daemen
M - Hailey Galison, St. Thomas Aquinas
M - Lia MacDougall, Roberts Wesleyan
M - Kayden Meyer, Mercy
M - Brenna Signorelli, Molloy
D - Reilly Brady, Molloy
D - Allison Clahane, Roberts Wesleyan
D - Sophia Conzone, D’Youville
D - Jenna Havert, Daemen
D - Lauren Parker, D’Youville
GK - Olivia LaMonica, Mercy
Attacker of the Year - Emma Blumenstock, Roberts Wesleyan
Midfielder of the Year - Ashlinn Kelly, Mercy
Defender of the Year - Lindsey Shimborske, Mercy
Goalkeeper of the Year - Shawna Lesmerises, Roberts Wesleyan
Rookie of the Year - Ashlinn Kelly, Mercy (unanimous)
Coach of the Year - Dawn Sachs, Mercy