La Belle and Powless earn Heart Individual Awards for 2024 success

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - In a season that saw the arrow pointed up for the Clarke University men's lacrosse team, both their head coach Tucker La Belle and junior attack Doug Powless earned individual awards in the Heart of America Athletic Conference for the first time in program history.

Heart officials announced on Friday afternoon that La Belle earned Co-Coach of the Year for this season, sharing the recognition with Benedictine College head coach Billy Dineen as the Ravens won the regular season title and faced the Pride in the first round of the Heart Tournament this past Wednesday evening.

La Belle led CU to their most wins in a season, finishing with a 5-10 record with their first conference tournament appearance in program history as the Pride showed vast improvements, especially on the defensive side of the field, holding their opponents to single digit goals in six of their 15 games including a season-opening shutout against Concordia Chicago on Feb. 13.

Powless, a transfer from Herkimer College, was named the Newcomer of the Year in the Heart as a versatile asset for Clarke in his first season in Dubuque, primarily serving as a part of the attack, but also able to play long stick defender, and take faceoffs if the moment called for it.

Leading the team in assists, Powless would finish his first season at CU with 33 points, good for second on the team, with his 20 assists while adding 13 goals, one of five members of the Pride to finish with double figure goals on the season. Powless also grabbed 29 ground balls, caused 14 turnovers, and went 18-for-29 (62.1%) on faceoffs for the year.

Full Heart Postseason Award/All-Conference Release: https://heart.prestosports.com/sports/mlax/2023-24/releases/20240426mktqol

Clakre men's lacrosse finished 5-10 on the season and expects to return all but two players from the 2024 roster for the 2025 season.