SAN FRANCISCO – OREGON’s Shannon Williams was named Pac-12 Women’s Lacrosse Scholar-Athlete of the Year for the 2019 season, the Conference office announced today. The award, which is presented in each of the 24 sports the Pac-12 sponsors, was established to honor collegiate student-athletes that are standouts both academically and in their sports discipline.

Williams hails from Bel Air, Md., and carries an impressive 3.95 grade point average as a health and human physiology & biology major. She earned 2018 Pac-12 All-Academic honors after the Conference’s inaugural women’s lacrosse season and collected MPSF All-Academic honors in 2017 prior to that.

The senior captain leads the team with 62 points this season, which ranks third in the Conference, after scoring 35 goals and dishing out 27 assists. Williams holds a total of six Oregon program records, including four career records and two single-season records. She became Oregon’s all-time leader in points and goals this season with her 220th point at California on March 8, and broke the career-goals record with her 147th tally versus USC on March 17. She is the Ducks’ all-time recorder holder in career points (3.69) and career goals per game (2.34), setting single-season marks with 74 points in 2018 and 4.24 points per game in 2017.

The attacker was named second team All-Pac-12 in 2018 and first-team All-MPSF in 2017 while making 68-consecutive starts since joining the program in 2016. Williams has scored a goal in 60 outings during her stint as a Duck and has registered 251 career points. The offensive talent has scored seven hat tricks this season and was named Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week (Feb. 11) after a seven-point performance against Mercer.

Williams leads Oregon into the postseason when the sixth-seeded Ducks host the second-annual Pac-12 Women’s Lacrosse Tournament, Thursday-Sunday, April 25-28 at Papé Field. All five games of the 2019 Pac-12 Women’s Lacrosse Tournament will be televised on Pac-12 Networks, and will be available on Pac-12 Now and Pac-12.com/live.

In order to be eligible for the Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year award, student-athletes must be a senior (in athletics eligibility), on track to receive a degree, have a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or higher, participate in at least 50% of the scheduled contests in the sport and have a minimum of one year in residence at the institution. Each Pac-12 institution may nominate one individual per sport, and the winners are selected by a committee of Pac-12 staff members at the conclusion of each sport’s regular season. The athletic accomplishments of the nominees are a consideration in the voting for the award.

A Scholar-Athlete of the Year will be named in each of the Pac-12’s 24 sponsored sports: baseball, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, beach volleyball, men’s cross country, women’s cross country, football, men’s golf, women’s golf, women’s gymnastics, women’s lacrosse, men’s rowing, women’s rowing, men’s soccer, women’s soccer, softball, men’s swimming & diving, women’s swimming & diving, men’s tennis, women’s tennis, men’s track & field, women’s track & field, women’s volleyball, and wrestling.

Also Nominated: Rachel Gregory, ASU; Olivia Aschman, COLO; Julia Massaro, STAN; Jackie Gilbert, USC.

Pac-12 Women’s Lacrosse Scholar-Athlete of the Year
2019 – Shannon Williams, Oregon
2018 – Kelsey Murray, Stanford