NEW YORK – Nearly a year after his graduation from Loyola University Maryland, men's lacrosse All-American Pat Spencer achieved another first for a Greyhounds student-athlete when he was named a semifinalist for the James E. Sullivan Award, an honor given yearly to the top amateur athlete in the United States.
 
The award, given by the AAU, has past recipients that include football's Tim Tebow (2007) and Peyton Manning (1997), swimming's Michael Phelps (2003) and Missy Franklin (2012) and track and field's Florence Griffith-Joyner (1988) and Carl Lewis (1981).
 
As part of the voting process for the award, fans can cast their ballot for Spencer starting on March 9.
 
Last year, Spencer concluded his lacrosse career as the most-decorated player in Loyola history. He became the school's first recipient of the Tewaaraton Award as the nation's top player.
 
Spencer was a four-time United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA) All-American. He was named the USILA's Lt. Raymond J. Enners Most Outstanding Player in 2019 after earning the organization's Lt. Col. J.I. "Jack" Turnbull Outstanding Attackman of the Year honor in 2018.
 
This year, Spencer completed as a graduate transfer for the Northwestern University men's basketball team, averaging 10.6 points and a team-high 3.8 assists for the Big Ten Conference's Wildcats.
 
Spencer is the first player in Patriot League history to earn the conference's Offensive Player of the Year honors all four years, was a four-time All-Patriot League First Team honoree and earned the organization's Rookie of the Year trophy in 2016.
 
At Loyola, he was a four-time Team Most Valuable Player, the school's Male Junior Athlete of the Year in 2018 and Senior Athlete of the Year in 2019, and last month was the recipient of Loyola's John Mohler Award as the top senior student-athlete for his graduating class.
 
Spencer had career-highs across the board offensively in 2019, finishing his Tewaaraton-winning 17-game slate with 49 goals, 65 assists and 114 points. His assist and point totals set school and Patriot League records, while his goals were a career-best and sixth-most at Loyola. He had four of his seven-career games with 10 or more points during the season, recording 11 on three occasions including the NCAA Quarterfinal against Penn State University.
 
He opened the year with three-straight seven-point games in victories over Virginia, Johns Hopkins and Rutgers University, and he followed that with 5- and 11-point outings versus Towson University and College of the Holy Cross.
 
Early in Patriot League play, he had consecutive eight-point games, only to back those up with 10 points against Colgate University and five goals and six assists for 11 versus Lehigh University.
 
Spencer continued his dynamic year in the postseason, scoring nine points on three goals and six assists in a first-round win over Syracuse before going off for six goals and five assists against the Nittany Lions in his lacrosse finale.
 
Over the course of his career, Spencer scored at least one point in all 68 games, amassing 64 multi-point affairs. He had five or more points in 43 of those outings, helping make his 5.58 points per game 10^th-most in NCAA Division I history. Coincidentally, he also had 43 games with three or more assists, and his 3.40 assists per game rank sixth in school history.
 
Loyola enjoyed considerable success as a team during Spencer's time with the program, going 49-19 (.721) overall, reaching the NCAA Tournament four times – a trip to the semifinals in 2016 and quarterfinal visits in 2018 and 2019 – winning three Patriot League Regular-Season Championships and three Patriot League Tournament titles.