Notre Dame women’s lacrosse star Jackie Wolak named ACC Attacker of the Year
As Notre Dame women’s lacrosse awaits its draw in the NCAA Tournament, the Atlantic Coast Conference honored star graduate student attacker Jackie Wolak as the best in the league at her craft. Wolak won ACC Attacker of the Year, the conference announced Wednesday.
Wolak is one of three Notre Dame players who made the All-ACC first team on April 23, along with graduate attacker Madison Ahern and graduate midfielder Kasey Choma. Senior midfielders Kelly Denes and MK Doherty took home All-ACC second-team honors as well.
Throughout her 2024 campaign, Wolak led the conference in points with 92. She paced the Irish, who finished their pre-NCAA Tournament slate 15-3 (7-2 ACC), in both goals with 54 and assists with 38 in 18 games.
Wolak totaled 11 hat tricks as she helped guide Notre Dame to a banner season. The Irish upset the No. 1 team in the country twice, stunning Northwestern 14-10 on Feb. 16 and beating Boston College 15-14 on March 16.
Notre Dame wouldn’t have won those two games without Wolak, who notched hat tricks in both games and put up 11 combined points (7 goals, 4 assists).
She scored the eventual game-winning goal against Northwestern, firing a shot past the Wildcats’ goalie with 6:58 to go in the fourth quarter to put the Irish up 11-10. Just over four minutes later, she helped put the game away with another goal to extend Notre Dame’s lead to 3 with 2:48 to play.
In the win over Boston College, Wolak gave the Irish a 14-13 lead on a free position shot with 3:20 to go. The Eagles took less than a minute to tie the game, but Doherty won it in the final 15 seconds with an unassisted goal.
During Notre Dame’s ACC Tournament quarterfinal win over Clemson, Wolak scored 4 goals and dished out 3 assists in a 14-12 win. She was named to the All-Tournament team, despite the Irish falling in the semifinals to Boston College.
Wolak is the program’s first ACC Attacker of the Year ever, and she’s the first Notre Dame player to win a conference offensive player of the year award since Jillian Byers won Big East Attack Player of the Year in 2009. She’s also the first Irish player to win an annual conference award since Barbara Sullivan took home ACC Defensive Player of the Year in 2016.
In addition to her conference honors, Wolak — along with Choma — is one of 25 nominees for the women’s Tewaaraton Award. Known as the Heisman Trophy of college lacrosse, the Tewaaraton Award honors “the top male and female college lacrosse player in the United States.”
Notre Dame’s seed and draw in the NCAA Tournament bracket will be revealed at 9 p.m. ET on Sunday, with ESPN2 airing the selection show. The Irish are safely in the 29-team field, sitting at No. 10 in the NCAA Women’s Lacrosse Rating Percentage Index (RPI).
Wolak will look to lead Notre Dame to its first women’s lacrosse national championship ever, and its first final four since 2006.
