Moon Township, Pa. - Junior Kyle Buchanan (Nepean, Ontario / John McCrae) of the Robert Morris University men's lacrosse team became the fourth Colonial in the past three weeks to earn an award from the Northeast Conference as the midfielder was tabbed the NEC Co-Player of the Week in a league announcement.
Buchanan becomes the fifth Colonial to earn a weekly honor from the NEC in his career and gives Robert Morris an honoree in the NEC's player of the week category for the third consecutive week.
Buchanan led the Colonials in points this past week while helping lead the team to a pair of victories. Entering the week, Buchanan had one four-point game in his collegiate career, but he proceeded to pull off that feat twice within the span of five days.
In an 11-7 win at Jacksonville, March 9, Buchanan broke his career high with five points courtesy of his second-career hat-trick and two assists. He played a hand in three consecutive RMU scores in 4:05, spanning the third and fourth quarters, to double Robert Morris' lead. Buchanan also assisted on the game-winning goal, broke his career highs in both shots (9) and shots on goal (6) and snagged three ground balls.
The midfielder followed up that career performance with another very fine effort Sunday as RMU knocked off Detroit on the road, 14-13, in overtime. Buchanan tallied two goals and two assists while collecting a team game-high and individual season-high seven ground balls along with a season-high two caused turnovers. With this performance, Buchanan moved into a tie for second in all-time assists at RMU (40) and into a tie for third in career ground balls (108).
These two performances helped Buchanan extend his consecutive point streak to 33 games, which is tied for fourth longest nationally. He has registered at least one point in 35 of the 36 games he has played in his collegiate career. Buchanan now has recorded three multi-goal games and three multi-assists games in RMU's six contests this season.
This marks the second weekly conference honor for Buchanan as the Colonial Athletic Association named him its Rookie of the Week April 6, 2009 after he tallied a three-assist performance, including providing the game-winning helper, in an 11-10 victory over Drexel.
Senior captain Trevor Moore (Port Coquitlam, British Columbia / Western Reserve Academy) and redshirt senior captain Patrick Smith (Westminster, Md. / Westminster) had received NEC Player of the Week honors in the first and second NEC releases of the season, respectively, while junior long-stick midfielder Mike Meagher (Chesterfield, Mo. / St. Louis University) was named the NEC Co-Defensive Player of the Week in the same week that Moore received his accolade. Robert Morris' four NEC weekly honors are the most in the league thus far this season.
After completing its recent three-game road trip, Robert Morris returns home Saturday as it hosts Bellarmine. The opening faceoff is set for 1:00 p.m. at Joe Walton Stadium.
