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Grant Ament, Matt Rambo, Pat Spencer and Lyle Thompson are US Lacrosse Magazine’s finalists for Best Men’s Player of 2019.

Head over to Twitter to cast your vote and look for results in our annual Best of Lacrosse (#BestOfLax) edition coming out in December.

More information on each finalist appears below.

Grant Ament
Penn State

After missing the entire 2018 season with a foot injury, Ament returned with a vengeance in 2019. He led the Nittany Lions’ precipitous rise to No. 1 in the nation and lit the fuse for Penn State’s explosive offense. Ament set the NCAA single-season record with 96 assists and finished just two points shy of Lyle Thompson’s single-season scoring record of 128. Penn State, which averaged nearly 18 goals per game, won its first-ever NCAA tournament game and vaulted all the way into the final four. Along the way, Ament set the NCAA tournament record with 25 points and tied the mark for assists with 19.

Matt Rambo
Whipsnakes/Wings/USA

Rambo, a former Tewaaraton Award winner, emerged as the face of the nascent Premier Lacrosse League and the American box lacrosse movement. The Whipsnakes attackman led the PLL in points (43) and assists (23) during the regular season, then delivered the game-tying and winning goals in an OT thriller to beat Redwoods in the championship game. Rambo, the PLL MVP, also was a finalist for the National Lacrosse League’s Rookie of the Year honor after a 26-goal, 30-assist campaign with the expansion Philadelphia Wings and suited up for the U.S. indoor team in the World Indoor Lacrosse Championship.

Pat Spencer
Loyola

A three-time Tewaaraton Award finalist, Spencer finally took home the trophy. He set the NCAA Division I record for career assists (231) and finished No. 2 on the all-time points list (380) behind only two-time Tewaaraton winner Lyle Thompson. Spencer broke his own school and Patriot League record with 114 points as a senior, his last season culminating in a six-goal, five-assist performance in the Greyhounds’ 21-14 NCAA quarterfinal loss to Penn State. A first-round draft pick in both the Premier Lacrosse League (No. 1 overall) and Major League Lacrosse, Spencer put his professional lacrosse career on hold and is using his last year of NCAA athletic eligibility to play basketball at Northwestern.

Lyle Thompson
Bayhawks/Swarm

He’s already been mentioned twice in this post, and he might as well take up permanent residence in this category. Thompson, an NLL first-team All-Pro forward with the Georgia Swarm, earned the league’s Sportsmanship Award for the second straight year — creating a teaching moment out of an ugly incident in which he was taunted by an opposing team’s public address announcer and fans with remarks related to his braid and Native American heritage. That’s to say nothing of his continued excellence on the floor (43 goals, 62 assists for the NLL’s Georgia Swarm) and on the field (46 goals, 27 assists for Major League Lacrosse’s Chesapeake Bayhawks). After being named an NLL MVP finalist, Thompson sealed a spectacular year by winning the MLL MVP and Offensive Player of the Year awards.