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Each year, we at US Lacrosse Magazine pore over the top coaches, players, games, performances, breakthroughs and moments for this annual “Best of Lacrosse” edition.

We took the debate to Twitter and let our 65,000-plus followers @USLacrosseMag have the final say. Here are the 2017 winners.

PHOTO BY JOHN STROHSACKER

Best Men’s Coach

And the winner is... 

Maryland coach John Tillman

How could we not give a nod to the coach who ended the Terps’ 42-year NCAA championship drought?

Tillman never hid from the history. Even though he had led Maryland to five NCAA final fours and four national championship games in his first six seasons, he acknowledged the seventh season would be incomplete without that elusive title — especially considering how painfully close the Terps came in 2016, culminating in an overtime loss to North Carolina in the championship game.

Maryland had some strong personalities in its locker room, including Tewaaraton Award winner Matt Rambo. Tillman struck the perfect chord that allowed them to take ownership of the journey and play loose while also staying true to the disciplined approach that has become a hallmark of his teams.

— Matt DaSilva

PHOTO BY JOHN STROHSACKER

Best Women’s Coach

And the winner is...

Navy coach Cindy Timchal

Amanda Towey took a red-eye flight from San Diego to Philadelphia just to be there when the Navy women’s lacrosse team won its NCAA second-round game over UMass.

“I flew back right after the game to be back at work Monday,” said Towey, a 2008 Navy graduate. “At that point, I was thinking, ‘They’ve never gotten this far before, I have to go to this one. Who knows when they’ll get back here again?’ And then it just kept going.”

Indeed the journey continued — through defending NCAA champion North Carolina and into the final four, the first for a women’s team from a service academy in any sport.

“It was incredible,” Towey said. “I got emotional about it. It was cool.”

Timchal, architect of eight NCAA championships at Maryland in the 1990s and 2000s after coaching at Northwestern in the 1980s, became the first coach to take three different teams to the NCAA tournament. The other three teams in the NCAA semifinals — Boston College, Navy and Penn State — were coached by players whom Timchal mentored in College Park.

Perhaps a similar legacy is beginning in Annapolis.

“I just feel like we’re getting started, though,” Timchal said. “That’s how we feel about coming off of last season. This is just a start. This is not just this little Cinderella ride.”

— Justin Feil

PHOTO BY GILDA ROTTMAN

Best Men’s Player

And the winner is...

Maryland attackman Matt Rambo

The Tewaaraton winner led Maryland to its first NCAA championship since 1975 and became the Terps’ all-time leading scorer along the way. He finished the season with 42 goals and 45 assists, moving his career totals to 155 and 102, respectively. 

Rambo, a 5-foot-10, 210-pound attackman, arrived in College Park as a ballyhooed recruit and lived up to the hype especially on the sport’s biggest stage. He averaged five points per game in the NCAA tournament.

— Matt DaSilva

PHOTO BY JOHN STROHSACKER

Best Women’s Player

And the winner is...

Stony Brook attacker Kylie Ohlmiller

Every so often, one publication or another will compile a list of the greatest athletes to ever wear a certain uniform number. Some are easy than others. For instance, with apologies to Aaron Judge, No. 99 belongs to Wayne Gretzky.

Number 17 is a little harder. Some say it’s Boston Celtics Hall of Famer John Havlicek. Others consider it Finnish hockey legend Jari Kurri. Or Dizzy Dean, ace of the St. Louis Cardinals’ famed Gashouse Gang.

But what about Kylie Ohlmiller?

After all, Ohlmiller, who wears No. 17 for Stony Brook women’s lacrosse, didn’t just have the best statistical season of her career in 2017. She had the best statistical season of anyone’s career in 2017.

A Tewaaraton finalist, Ohlmiller broke the NCAA Division I single-season record with 164 points, surpassing the great Jen Adams, and also eclipsed Hannah Nielsen for the single-season assists mark with 86.

Ohlmiller won the America East Rookie of the Year in 2015. In 2016, she made the U.S. national team and fulfilled the prophecy from her high school yearbook when her behind-the-back virtuosity landed her on “SportsCenter,” twice.

In retrospect, she probably should have seen 2017 coming. No. 17 means something in the Ohlmiller household. Kylie has worn it her whole life. Her dad, Chuck, wore it as a high school baseball player. His dad wore it before him.

“I’ve actually thought about it,” she said. “Like, ‘Wow, 2017 has been a good year.’”

 — Mark Macyk

PHOTO BY ADY KERRY

Best Game

And the winner is...

England 10, Australia 9 (OT) — FIL Women's World Cup Bronze Medal Game

England rallied from a four-goal second-half deficit and Megan Whittle (Maryland ’18) scored on a free position with 5.5 seconds remaining in double overtime to defeat Australia 10-9 in the bronze medal game of the FIL Women’s World Cup at Surrey Sports Park in Guildford, England.

England, the host country, medaled in the event for the first time since 2005, while Australia dropped to fourth place, falling short of a medal for the first time in its history.

Tewaaraton finalist Olivia Hompe (Princeton ’17) provided the heroics in regulation, scoring three goals in the final 10 minutes and tying the game on a backhanded shovel shot with her back to the goal with 2:22 remaining.

“To play for this team and this country in front of this crowd, it’s really a dream come true,” Hompe said. “This was the game of the whole tournament.”

— Matt DaSilva

PHOTO BY GREG SHEMITZ

Best Men’s Performance

And the winner is...

Denver faceoff specialist Trevor Baptiste — 21-for-22 FO vs. Notre Dame in NCAA Quarterfinal

Coming off a dominant first-round performance against Air Force, Baptiste did not have much to improve upon. All Baptiste did in the next round was win 21 of 22 faceoffs, including 21 consecutive victories, and add 13 ground balls to help lead Denver to a 16-4 blowout win over Notre Dame to advance to the final four.

Oh, and he scored a goal to go with the unbelievable faceoff performance. 

Baptiste was a two-time Epoch/US Lacrosse Player of the Week during a prolific season in which he became the first faceoff man to be named a Tewaaraton Award finalist. He also made the U.S. training team.

— Matt Hamilton

PHOTO BY GREG WALL

Best Women’s Performance

And the winner is... 

Boston College attacker Kenzie Kent — 10 Points in 16-13 NCAA Championship Loss to Maryland on May 28

After her ice hockey team lost in the NCAA semifinals, Boston College junior Kenzie Kent took one week off before rejoining the Eagles’ lacrosse team in late March. Playing just five regular season games and then 12 postseason games en route to the NCAA championship against Maryland, Kent finished third on the team in points (77) with a well-balanced 39 goals and 38 assists.

But her performance peaked in the NCAA title game, tallying 10 points (five goals and five assists) against the Terps, tying the all-time NCAA championship record. Four of her five goals and three of her five assists came in the second half.

Kent became the first player in NCAA Division I Women’s Lacrosse championship history to be named the Most Outstanding Player from the losing team. In her final four games against Navy and Maryland, she totaled 10 goals on 14 shots, six assists, four ground balls and four draw controls.

— Megan Schneider

Best Men’s Breakthrough

And the winner is...

Princeton attackman Michael Sowers

The third-team All-American set the school’s single-season scoring record with 82 points (41G, 41A) as a freshman and ranked third nationally in points per game (5.47).

— Matt DaSilva

PHOTO BY GREG WALL

Best Women’s Breakthrough

And the winner is...

Navy attacker Kelly Larkin

Freshman Kelly Larkin, who finished second in points with 108, led the Cinderella team to NCAA championship weekend, where she was just one of two Midshipmen to be named to the all-tournament team. Larkin led Navy to the final four with a team-high four goals and six points in their quarterfinal upset over reigning national champion North Carolina. The Patriot League Rookie of the Year was the first freshman, and just the fourth player in program history, to record 100 or more points in a season.

— Megan Schneider

Best Moment

And the winner is...

Patriots' Chris Hogan Puts Lacrosse in the Spotlight

The National Football League and the lacrosse world converged in a viral social media moment thanks to New England Patriots’ AFC championship hero Chris Hogan, the wide receiver who scored 57 goals in three years for the Penn State men’s lacrosse team.

On Jan. 22, Lacrosse Twitter blew up as Hogan, who referenced Penn State lacrosse on “Sunday Night Football” on Nov. 13, 2016, set a Patriots postseason record with 180 receiving yards to go along with nine catches and two touchdowns en route to a 36-17 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers. As the Patriots headed to the Super Bowl, Hogan’s lacrosse back story reached mainstream media.

— Megan Schneider