My 2025 PLL Awards Ballot

The PLL Awards were given at a ceremony in New York City on September 12. Finalists for each award are decided by the players. Winners are picked by PLL Coaches/General Managers, Award Namesakes, the PLL Front Office, selected PLL Alumni, and members of the media. As a media member, I’ve been honored with the opportunity to vote. I believe in transparency and accountability. In the NBA, fans can do a simple google search and see the entire awards ballot, complete with every voter by name and how they voted for every award. The AP released the ballots for voters in the NFL awards last season as well. The PLL isn’t quite doing that yet, but I still choose to share mine. 

An interesting note for this year, and it signals a passing of the torch in the field game. Every winner this year is a first time award winner. This is the first time that’s happened since the PLL was launched in 2019. I’d also like to make a case for some additional award. First, from 2005 until 2017, the MLL awarded a Most Improved Player award. I’d love to see the PLL bring this back. Second, the NLL gives an award to the most outstanding media member. I’d love to see the PLL do this so I can vote to give it to Chris Rosenthal and/or Phil Shore.

Below is how I voted for each award, and my rationale for voting. This is just for on field performance and coach of the year; I didn’t include my votes for things like the Leadership Award or the Humanitarian Award. I did however include who I voted for first and second team All Pro at the bottom of the ballot. 

Most Valuable Player

Finalists: Pat Kavanagh, Brennan O’Neill, Connor Shellenberger, Michael Sowers

My Vote: Connor Shellenberger

Actual Winner: Connor Shellenberger

MVP is always interesting. We get the talk radio/First Take sort of questions like “well is it the BEST player or the most VALUABLE player” that get asked as if it’s the first time anyone has ever entertained this thought. The best player in the league is also the most valuable player in the league. This year it was Shellenberger. Sorting by points (a lazy way to do this) will find Shellenberger at the top of the list in the PLL this summer, which surely landed him plenty of votes. But Shellenberger’s impact is so much more than that. He had a perfectly balanced 23 goals and 23 assists. He registered a point once every 7.85 touches this year. That’s the best rate in the MVP field, only Sowers even comes close to that rate of production per touch. Shellenberger shot 47.9%, the only player with 20+ shots to have a better percentage was Reid Bowering. Turn the tape on, and just isolate possessions where Shellenberger starts to his right from X or the low wing and just watch how often good things happen. There was no better engine for an offense this year than Shellenberger. He stood out as the clear top threat on an attack line that included Jeff Teat and one of the best schemed offenses in the league.

Attackman of the Year

Finalists: Pat Kavanagh, Brennan O’Neill, Connor Shellenberger, Michael Sowers

My Vote: Connor Shellenberger

Actual Winner: Connor Shellenberger

The MVP has also won their individual position award every year the PLL has existed, this year is no different. That’s how it should go. It wouldn’t make a ton of sense to be the MVP of the league but not be the best player in the league at his own position. Back in the MLL days it was a bit more common, but only because of the nature of the awards. MLL gave out MVP, Offensive Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, and Goalie of the Year. That opens up the possibility of differences between each a bit more easily. Still, from 2006 until the launch of the PLL, the MVP failed to win the corresponding OPOY or DPOY only four times. In 2012, Brendan Mundorf was MVP and Paul Rabil won his second OPOY. In 2015, Greg Gurenlian was MVP and there was no positional award for him to win. In 2016, Tom Schreiber was MVP and Rob Pannell was OPOY. In 2017, Schreiber again won MVP and Eric Law was OPOY. Every point made in the MVP section about the finalists applies again here. 

Midfielder of the Year

Finalists: Jared Bernhardt, Matt Campbell, Bryan Costabile, Andrew McAdorey

My Vote: Matt Campbell

Actual Winner: Matt Campbell

2025 was an unusual year, because for the first time since the PLL launched, Tom Schreiber isn’t in the field. He’s won the award five times. Zach Currier, a finalist in each of the last three years, also wasn’t up for the award this year. Bernhardt is in his first year as a PLL pro, McAdorey is a rookie, Matt Campbell is in year three. Costabile, drafted in 2020, is the senior citizen in this group. It came down to Campbell vs Bernhardt to me. 

Matt Campbell got my vote. He was the league’s highest scoring midfielder, but as I say again and again, this isn’t just a sort by points and pick the guy on the top of the list situation. Campbell had just eight turnovers all season, less than one per game. McAdorey was the next lowest with 12, Costabile had 21, Bernhardt had 17. Midfield is a position that can at times be a bit fast and loose with the ball. Turnovers as low as Campbell’s aren’t common. It’s also a spot that can be a lower shooting percentage position, but all the candidates bucked that trend this year. Campbell shot 28.6% in 2025, his best mark as a pro. Campbell got the ball in high leverage situations this year, he triggered sets when Boston absolutely had to have a goal. If he wasn’t the player starting with the ball, frequently the scheme had him ending with it. As a dodger, Campbell is, at worst, top three in the PLL among midfielders.

Bernhardt was a close second to me. He moves differently than everyone else. He has sequences that make some of the best defenders in the PLL look helpless. His late arrival to the PLL this season meant he didn’t have the same production as some of the other candidates, but I wouldn’t fault anyone who voted him to win this award. Before the title game, Outlaws players were asked who should get the ball with the game on the line to go create something, and Bernhardt was a very popular answer. Given that roster, it should tell you all you need to know.

Defenseman of the Year

Finalists: Gavin Adler, JT Giles-Harris, Graeme Hossack, Jack Rowlett

My Vote: Jack Rowlett

Actual Winner: Gavin Adler

Early in the year I called this basically a two horse race between Hossack and Rowlett. As the year went on, Gavin Adler clearly belonged in that group too. JT Giles-Harris will be in this field for as long as he plays the game. 

This field was correct this year. I know people throw Ajax Zappitello as a possible snub. He led the league in CTs. But you can’t just sort by CTs and take the top guy. It’s such a small part of being a good defender. Part of this probably gets down to still really needing to figure out a way to quantify defensive performance. PLL has the closest defender shooting percentage, that’s ok but I consider it still flawed. It’s really hard to do. Ultimately deciding who the best is comes down to watching these guys play. You have to turn the game on. 

All four defenders are true erasers. Looking at this purely individually, I thought Rowlett had some incredible performances. In four games where he guarded Jeff Teat, TJ Malone, Pat Kavanagh, and Michael Sowers, he surrendered a combined 11 shots and three goals. One of those performances came while dealing with a flu, having had a few IV bags the night before and day of the game just to get on the field. Hossack was equally impressive. In a game against Denver he drew, as he always does, the O’Neill matchup, and outscored his matchup. That alone is award worthy. Hossack marks at least two plays per game that earn him his Cyborg nickname, and it’s not just with physicality. Sometimes he’ll just reach out and catch a shot. He’ll take perfect angles on plays that blow up a dodge or ground ball before things even really happen. Gavin Adler also was excellent in coverage, routinely drawing top matchups. I will say, when it comes to Adler, the internet LOVES to do that thing where they invent someone to argue with and then start arguing. “People say that he’s too small or there’s a size issue!” People don’t say that. Nobody who has watched Gavin Adler play for more than a quarter of a lacrosse game says that. Since his time in college and in the pros, there are only two players I would say have maybe given Adler an issue from a size perspective. Sam Handley shot over him ONCE at Penn and scored a goal, and Zed Williams was able to draw doubles with Adler in the matchup, although Zed didn’t produce many points. That’s it. Nobody who has watched him play and is trying to be anything but argumentative would make a case his size is an issue. He was the first overall pick and played like it this year, his size is not an issue and never has been. I think timeline also is interesting here. Votes had to be submitted by September 2nd. That means semifinal and title game performances couldn’t be considered, and those might have been Adler’s best two games of the season. If voting went on after those games, I think Adler runs away with it. 

For this award, whoever you voted for, you’re right. As tight a race as any. 

Goalie of the Year

Finalists: Liam Entenmann, Logan McNaney, Blaze Riorden

My Vote: Brett Dobson. Just Kidding, Liam Entenmann.

Actual Winner: Logan McNaney

This was an interesting race. To start, Brett Dobson got left out because his team missed the playoffs and I won’t be convinced otherwise. He led the league in save percentage among regular starters. He was third in saves. He led the league in both 15+ save games and games at 60% or better. He had zero games under 50% in net. A worthy finalist, but not on the ballot. Blaze Riorden will be nominated every year he plays, and deservedly so. He changes the way a team defense can work, changes where offenses have to attack to get good shots, he is a game warping goalie. With Blaze in goal, you can slide and double aggressively, even recklessly, because he erases mistakes that turn into shots. If your offense is built on attack from wings, you have to extend your dodges or runs off picks to get further into the middle of the field because Blaze eats everything from low angles. It’s a sight to behold to watch him change the game.

Logan McNaney is an interesting case because he didn’t start all 10 games. He took over in net in game three for the Outlaws. He started with a bang, with four straight games at 60% or better and with 14+ saves. His second half was more of a struggle, as he didn’t go 60% or better over the last four games and had two at sub 50%. McNaney’s best asset is his off the charts clean save percentage. At one point it was north of 70%, while the league average was in the 40s. McNaney turned shots, even good shots, into transition offense with regularity. In an evolving PLL where this sort of thing is tracked more closely and represents a way that goalies impact the offense, McNaney is at the bleeding edge of what a goalie of the future should look like. 

Ultimately, I voted for Entenmann. He had two games with 20+ saves this year, coming against the Whips and Waterdogs. Only Riorden also had two 20+ save games among the finalists. He held an opponent to single digits four times. He led the league in saves. But it’s more than just numbers for him. With Entenmann, it’s really about turning on the tape and seeing the timely saves. There is no goalie in the PLL who made the save his team needed, when they needed it, as consistently as Entenmann this year. To me Entenmann separated himself in that regard. Making the absurd save with regularity, making the big save every time. McNaney was outstanding as well, in a different way. 

Faceoff Specialist of the Year

Finalists: Trevor Baptiste, TD Ierlan, Joe Nardella

My Vote: TD Ierlan

Actual Winner: TD Ierlan

Faceoff awards have always been pretty straightforward to me. It’s the nature of the position. Someone wins, someone loses. Yes, there are considerations like wing play and personnel, but it’s not crazy to suggest that looking at performance by one finalist against the other two will get you pretty close to who the best is. If you do that here, it becomes academic. TD Ierlan in two games against the Atlas and Whipsnakes went 74%. Joe Nardella in three games against the Atlas and Redwoods went 53%. Trevor Baptiste in three games against the Redwoods and Whipsnakes went 40%. Ierlan was a clear measure above the other two in head to head matchups. Ierlan was one of two players in the league with a faceoff percentage of 60% or better, the other being Justin Inacio who got a game against a team with no specialist to bolster his percentage a bit. From the start of July until the end of the year, Ierlan didn’t go under 60% once. Ierlan also had six points this year, and only turned the ball over five times.  With the 32 second clock in effect, faceoff specialists limiting turnovers is critical and Ierlan does it extremely well. 

Long Stick Midfielder of the Year

Finalists: Jake Piseno, Troy Reh, Mason Woodward

My Vote: Troy Reh

Actual Winner: Jake Piseno

Piseno took home the hardware, and this year looked every bit the player that we expected him to be coming out of Albany. Piseno was a monster in transition, leading all poles in scoring with 12 points including three two point goals along with four assists. In the PLL, and really in field lacrosse in general, the LSM position has evolved to where the ability to score isn’t just nice to have, it’s a hard requirement. Piseno, like his teammate Logan McNaney, represents what the future of the position probably looks like. In the case of many young and collegiate LSMs, the ability to score in transition has become more of a focus than actual coverage and defensive ability. It’s still important to be able to cover your man and play good team defense. Piseno can, but I thought Reh was more impactful on the defensive end, even if he scored less.

Reh had 11 caused turnovers, just one less than Piseno on the season. Reh also led all poles in GBs, and was just one behind Zach Currier for most in the PLL among non-faceoff specialists. It’s an interesting year to go with Troy Reh because, unlike Piseno, he spends some time lining up down low for the Chaos too. In situations off faceoffs, or if they can get a matchup switch to move him onto a particular player. In my opinion, that’s a positive for his case, not a negative. Reh also is outstanding off ball disrupting passing lines. When you watch the ball move for opponents, you can see they have to widen out on the perimeter to get the ball around, and skip lanes are rarely open. Reh is a major part of that. Just by virtue of the fact that he positions himself so well as an off ball defender, and with his stick where it should be, he forces the offense to take more time to spin the ball. Piseno does this really well too, but I gave Reh a slightly better mark in this area, and that’s what gave him the edge to me. 

SSDM of the Year

Finalists: Dylan Hess, Danny Logan, Ryan Terefenko, Brian Tevlin

My Vote: Ryan Terefenko

Actual Winner: Ryan Terefenko

Terefenko and Logan have been up for this award every year they’ve been in the league except for 2023, that was the year Latrell Harris won it. Hess is a rookie and this is Tevlin’s first nomination. This was one of the tighter races this year. I considered Tevlin, Logan, and Terefenko the frontrunners. Hess had a great year, but those first three are actually instrumental to what their teams do in terms of total team identity. Tevlin, who already had huge role, had an expanded role this year and had to steer a mostly new unit/locker room through the year. The Redwoods lost Chris Merle, Tevlin picked up the slack while playing with a rookie. Terefenko is the engine that moves things for Denver. That team is at their best from McNaney clean save, outlet to streaking Terry, and they have numbers within their attack. Terefenko can dodge, he’ll screw you in the sub game, he’ll run by someone and score, and he’ll outwork everyone on GBs. He is the most critical cog and tone setter for the Denver identity. If he disappeared tonight you would notice it immediately. Logan spent yet another season putting guys in a phone booth. Best pure cover shorty in the league, and if you were to do outright DPOY awards for all defenders being eligible, he’d probably have one by now. 

As we said with the goalie, I think we have a player being punished for team performance here. Beau Pederson was quite clearly one of the best SSDMs in the league this year. Great in coverage where we like to measure SSDMs, but watch Beau as a help defender too. He’s very rapidly evolving into one of the best in the game.

Rookie of the Year

Finalists: Aidan Carroll, Owen Hiltz, Chris Kavanagh, Logan McNaney

My Vote: Chris Kavanagh

Actual Winner: Chris Kavanagh

Let’s do some fun Player A vs Player B comparisons!

Player A:  37 points, 23 total goals (two two pointers) with 12 assists, 29.5% shooting, 12 turnovers, 23 GBs.

Player B: 37 points, 21 total goals with 16 assists, 23.3% shooting, 24 turnovers, 22 GBs

Player A is Chris Kavanagh. Player B is his brother, MVP finalist Pat Kavanagh. From just a numbers comp, you might blindly assume that Player A is the MVP finalist. Owen Hiltz and Logan McNaney were outstanding this year, and Aidan Carroll quietly finished the year 11th in the league in points. But Kavanagh ran away with this award for me. Hiltz case was probably hurt most by being a late arrival; as with all Canadian rookies he needed to get his visa sorted out, and then it took him a game or two to find his footing at game speed with the offense. Once he did, he was as impactful a rookie as anyone, but the volume of games at that level hurts his case for this award. McNaney won Goalie of the Year, clearly he had a Rookie of the Year level season, but he also had an outstanding supporting cast that was markedly better than the Redwoods cast. Chris Kavanagh was fifth in the league in scoring, and a critical reason for the Redwoods outperforming expectations. He’s already a franchise cornerstone attackman. 

Coach of the Year

Finalists: Mike Pressler, Tim Soudan, Anthony Kelly

My Vote: Anthony Kelly

Actual Winner: Tim Soudan

Anthony Kelly is a clear and obvious candidate because he took over a roster in need of a rebuild, took a whole bunch of turnover and new parts, and still got to a top four finish. I love Soudo. Coach Soudan is a really good coach, and a really good person. But he took the league’s best roster and had the league’s best finish. Coach of the Year, to me, is an award to the coach who takes his team and exceeds expectations, helps them to a place they were not  expected to go. That indicates that the coach matters, he got more out of his roster than anyone expected. That’s quality coaching at work. Soudan’s team looked like the best team, met expectations (once they added JB and Logan), and ultimately were a minute or two away from a title. Kelly took a team that was thought to be a lock to finish bottom two, and took them to a top four finish and won a playoff game. He did that despite having to steer them through a five game losing streak mid season. 

Comeback Player of the Year

Finalists: Jack Kielty, Dylan Molloy, Brad Smith

My Vote: Brad Smith

Actual Winner: Dylan Molloy

A new award! This has not been given before. The field here is interesting in that one thing is not like the others. Jack Kielty is back from an injury that caused him to miss last year. So is Brad Smith. Dylan Molloy is back from…the player pool? Being a healthy scratch? I don’t mean to demean the award at all here or the player that won it, but when you talk about Comeback awards, or when people do the “THIS GUY IS BACK” thing, you have to think about what they are back from. What is Dylan Molloy back from? Just curious to me. Molloy had an excellent season worthy of recognition, but when we do comebacks, what we come back from has to matter a bit. Other pro leagues have this award, and it’s not unusual for it to go to someone who maybe had a change of scenery and excelled with a new team and a new cast. So I fully understand the thinking of anyone who voted for Molloy. Personally, I considered the nature of the adversity overcome when I voted. I went with Brad Smith for that reason. He got back in the mix at the Championship Series, but he still spent over a year sidelined recovering from knee injuries and surgeries. Not only did he make his way back onto the field this year, he was asked to do more than expected. Coming into the summer, the Whips were hoping Tucker Dordevic could be back (he is still on IR and medically retired), and that they would have Ryan Conrad (spent the year on PUP). If it all went according to plan, Smith would be the third midfield option for the Whips. Instead, the guy coming off a major knee surgery was thrust into the position of being entering the year as the top midfield threat. He responded with a 15 point season, was second in the league in two pointers, and was one of the Whips most clutch players this year. Above and beyond, while coming off that much time off, is a spectacular comeback. 

All Pro Teams

1st team Attack:  Pat Kavanagh, Connor Shellenberger, Michael Sowers

2nd team Attack: Jeff Teat, Brennan O’Neill, Chris Kavanagh

1st team Midfield: Jared Bernhardt, Matt Campbell, Bryan Costabile

2nd team Midfield: Zach Currier, Andrew McAdorey, Matt Brandau

1st team Defense: Gavin Adler, Graeme Hossack, Jack Rowlett

2nd team Defense: JT Giles-Harris, Ajax Zappitello, Kenny Brower

1st team Goalie: Liam Entenmann

2nd team Goalie: Brett Dobson

1st team Faceoff Specialist: TD Ierlan

2nd team Faceoff Specialist: Joe Nardella

1st team LSM: Troy Reh

2nd team LSM: Jake Piseno

1st team SSDM: Danny Logan, Ryan Terefenko

2nd team SSDM: Brian Tevlin, Beau Pederson