Freshman Bella Burke (Each Moriches, N.Y./Center Moriches) became the third member of the Saint Francis women's lacrosse team to earn Northeast Conference Rookie of the Week with her honor for the week of April 24-29. The freshman was also named the NEC Defensive Player of the Week earlier this season. Burke and graduate student Autumn McHenry (Branford, Conn./Branford) have been named NEC Prime Performers.
 
Burke paced the defense with a career-high seven ground balls and six caused turnovers against Wagner to tie the single-game program record for caused turnovers in a game and the seventh most ground balls in a single game in team history. Burke tied Peyton LeConte's single-game record for caused turnovers with her six caused miscues on Saturday. It is the third time in team history a player has had six caused turnovers in a game after LeConte turned the trick twice in her career. Burke's seven ground balls are also the ninth most in single-game program history. In addition, Burke broke Lindsay Ingram's (23, 2013) freshmen caused turnover record with 26 caused turnovers, while her 36 ground balls also set a new freshmen standard breaking Katy Green's (34, 2002) mark.
 
Burke was also named the NEC Defensive Player of the Week for the week of April 3-9. The freshman has also been selected as an NEC Prime Performer for the last four weeks.
 
Burke is the 11th different player to earn the NEC Rookie of the Week distinction and marked the 20th time a Saint Francis player has bestowed the top weekly rookie honor, while the squad has earned the honor eight times this season for a new program record, breaking last year's mark of four rookie honors. Fellow freshman Bella Fisher (Duxbury, Mass./Duxbury) became the third player in league history since 2003 to earn five NEC Rookie of the Week honors (March 6-12, March 20-26, April 3-9, April 10-16 and April 17-23), while freshman Julia Givens (Elverson, Pa./Twin Valley) picked up two top rookie honors (February 27-March 5 and March 28-April 4).
 
Saint Francis has won a major award in the nine of the 10 weeks it has been playing this season and have established a new program record with 16 major weekly awards in 2023 double the old record of seven weekly awards established in 2022.
 
Along with the eight NEC Rookie of the Weeks and Burke's NEC Defensive Player of the Week, McHenry was selected as the NEC Player of the Week for the weeks February 20-27, April 10-16 and April 17-23 along with being named the NEC Defensive Player of the Week for the week of March 6-12. Junior Danielle Hernandez (New Fairfield, Conn./New Fairfield) was named the NEC Player of the Week for the weeks of February 27-March 5 and the week of March 28-April 4. Graduate student Elyssa Enrique (North Canton, Ohio/Hooker) was named the NEC Defensive Player of the Week for the week of February 27-March 5 when the Red Flash swept the honors for the first time in program history.
 
McHenry has earned eight NEC Prime Performer recognitions this season, while Fisher has earned five prime honors. Burke and Hernandez have earned four NEC Prime Performer distinction. Givens and Kelly Dickson (Blue Bell, Pa./ Wissahickon) have each nabbed two NEC Prime Performer distinctions with Enrique posting one Prime Performer on their resume this season.
 
In her final regular season home game, McHenry stuffed the stat sheet with three goals, six draw controls, three ground balls and a caused turnover. McHenry scored three times in the second quarter including tying the game at 4 with 4:56 left in the second quarter to give her a new program single-season standard for goals in. a season. Along with becoming the single-season leader in goals with 52 tallies, McHenry has moved into second place on the single-season chart with 68 points. The graduate student also tied the single-game program record for goals and points in a match. McHenry has registered at least a hat trick in each of her last seven games and has grabbed at least six draw controls in five of her last six tilts.
 
Saint Francis will make its first appearance in the NEC Tournament on Thursday at No. 1 seed Sacred Heart. Match time is 1 p.m.