Princeton University Athletics
Ryan Boyle Wins Roper Trophy for 2004
May 27, 2004 | Men's Lacrosse
May 27, 2004
Ryan Boyle, a two-time Ivy League Player of the Year who lifted a young Princeton lacrosse team into the Final Four as a senior, has been named the winner of the William Winston Roper Trophy for 2004.
The Roper Trophy was originally given by Mrs. William Winston Roper and the Class of 1902 in honor of Princeton's famed football coach. It goes annually to "a Princeton senior of high scholastic rank and outstanding qualities of sportsmanship and general proficiency in athletics."
Boyle began his career by being named the Ivy League Rookie of the Year, and he has gone on to be a three-time unanimous first-team All-Ivy League selection and a first-team All-America. He is one of two players in his sport to be named Ivy League Player of the Year twice.
He stands second all-time in scoring and assists at Princeton, and he has led Division I in assists twice and the Ivy League in scoring three times. He holds the Ivy League records for assists in a season and career. He has led his team to four Ivy League championships and three NCAA Final Fours, and to date he has been in two NCAA championship games and won one NCAA championship.
As a freshman, he assisted on a goal in overtime to give Princeton the national championship. As a senior, he has led a mostly inexperienced group back to the Final Four, and last Saturday at Virginia, he played one of the most remarkable games a Princeton athlete has had in recent history, scoring two goals in the final 1:55, including one with 12 seconds left, to send the game to overtime and then assisted perfectly on the game-winning goal in overtime to send Princeton to this weekend's Final Four. He did all this matched up against perhaps the best defenseman in college lacrosse.
Boyle is a psychology major and premed student from Hunt Valley, Md.