NYACK — Duke University junior defenseman JT Giles-Harris has been selected as the 2019 ACC Men’s Lacrosse Defensive Player of the Year in a vote of the league’s five head coaches.
The Nyack native has been a three-year starter for Duke and has started 52 of the 53 games. The last 15 games he has played alongside fellow defenseman Cade Van Raaphorst shutting down the opponents’ top scorers. Giles-Harris lead the Blue Devils in caused turnovers and ranked third among non-faceoff specialists in ground balls. His 24 caused turnovers in 15 games are two more than he had in 20 games last season, leading the ACC and are fifth among Blue Devils since it became an official NCAA statistic in 2010. He owns a career-best 32 ground balls this year.
Duke currently has the nation’s fourth-ranked defense with a 9.07 goals against average.
Before Duke, JT was a four-year starter at Saint Joseph Regional High School (NJ) . He amassed 511 ground balls as a defenseman during his career, with 21 goals and 49 assists.
While at St. Jospeh’s, he was a four-time all-league first team pick, named to USA Today All-American squad as a senior, first team all-county and All-North Jersey honors as a sophomore, junior and senior, and first team all-state in 2015 and 2016.
He selected as a 2016 Under Armour All-American pick.
Duke (12-4) the No. 2 seed travel to Hempstead, N.Y. to take on the No. 7 seed Notre Dame.
