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The Daily Orange Sports Awards: Rookie of the Year

UPDATED: May 7, 2017 at 5:06 p.m.

At the end of every sports season, there’s an award ceremony. With the Syracuse academic year coming to a close, The Daily Orange sports staff wanted to hand out its own awards, decided on by the readers.

There will be five categories to vote on: Best Transfer, Best Team, Best Moment, Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player. One poll will be sent out every day on Twitter (@DOsports) and will be open for 24 hours, giving readers a full day to vote and pick the winner. The Daily Orange sports staff considered multiple options for each category before settling on the four in each poll.

Here were the nominees, listed in alphabetical order by last name, for Rookie of the Year

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Jessica Sheldon | Staff Photographer

Tyus Battle: Men’s Basketball

Battle entered his freshman year as the 35th best recruit, per ESPN, and wowed the crowd with his athleticism at Orange Madness. He didn’t disappoint during the season, either. Battle averaged 11.3 points per game on 43 percent shooting, tacking on 1.3 steals too. He scored 20 points in three of his final five games.


Courtesy of the ACC

Emily Hawryschuk: Women’s Lacrosse

Hawryschuk was the eighth best freshman in the incoming class, per Inside Lacrosse. She’s come to SU and has been a scoring machine for the Orange. Her 38 goals are second on the team, nine more than the third most (Natalie Wallon with 29) and just three off of Riley Donahue’s — who is a Tewaaraton Award nominee — team-leading 41.

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Codie Yan | Staff Photographer

Miranda Ramirez: Tennis

As a freshman Ramirez was one of, if not the overall best player on Syracuse this year. She had a 10-1 record combined as the second and third singles player, quickly catapulting her up to the first singles spot. She finished the year a team-best 15-6 in singles play, and along with teammate Gabriella Knutson, formed the Orange’s No. 1 doubles pairing, which finished the year 9-7. Her performance earned her a spot on the All-Atlantic Coast Conference Second Team.

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Jordan Phelps | Staff Photographer

*Winner* Alexa Romero: Softball

Romero already had a unique advantage coming into the year as one of the few lefty pitchers in the ACC. She’s developed into the Orange’s ace, pitching a team-high 141.2 innings while maintaining a 2.72 era and 154 strikeouts. She’s thrown seven complete games in the process and held opponents to a .213 batting average against.

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