Each year, we at US Lacrosse Magazine pore over the top coaches, players, games, performances, breakthroughs and moments for the annual “Best of Lacrosse” edition. Naturally, this retrospective tome drops in December. 

But now is the time to be heard.

Over the next two weeks, we’re polling fans on Twitter (@USLacrosseMag) to vote on four finalists in 10 categories: Best Men’s Coach, Best Women’s Coach, Best Men’s Player, Best Women’s Player, Best Game, Best Men’s Performance, Best Women’s Performance, Best Men’s Breakthrough, Best Women’s Breakthrough and Best Moment.

Today, we present our four finalists for Best Men’s Player of 2017: Trevor Baptiste (Denver), Matt Rambo (Maryland/Charlotte Hounds), Tom Schreiber (Toronto Rock/Ohio Machine) and Lyle Thompson (Georgia Swarm/Chesapeake Bayhawks).

VOTE #BestOfLax Men's Player: Baptiste, Rambo, Schreiber or Lyle? (@DU_MLAX @TerpsMLax @MachineMLL @TorontoRockLax @GeorgiaSwarmLAX )

— US Lacrosse Magazine (@USLacrosseMag) October 18, 2017

Narrowing the field down to these four meant leaving out some heavy hitters. How about Limestone’s Kevin Reisman, the two-time USILA Division II Player of the Year and NCAA championship MVP whose career bona fides may never be matched? Or Albany’s Connor Fields, whose 117 points ranked fourth for a single season in NCAA Division I history? Or Zach Currier, who grabs your eye every time he’s on the field (or floor) doing grunt work for Princeton, the Denver Outlaws and the Peterborough Lakers?

Cases could be made for any and all of these standouts. More on this year’s finalists for Best Men’s Player:

Trevor Baptiste
Denver

Baptiste the Beast broke through in a big way in 2017, becoming the first faceoff specialist in history to be named a finalist for the prestigious Tewaaraton Award and one of just three current collegians named to the 2018 U.S. training team. And he’s only getting better. The Pioneers senior has won at clips of 68.0, 69.4 and 74.4 percent in his first three seasons. This year, he added 12 goals to the ledger and most memorably obliterated Notre Dame with 21 straight faceoff wins in a 16-4 NCAA quarterfinal win sending Denver to the final four.

Matt Rambo
Maryland/Charlotte Hounds

The Tewaaraton winner led Maryland to its first NCAA championship since 1975 and became the Terps’ all-time leading scorer along the way. He finished the season with 42 goals and 45 assists, moving his career totals to 155 and 102, respectively.  Rambo, a 5-foot-10, 210-pound attackman, arrived in College Park as a ballyhooed recruit and lived up to the hype especially on the sport’s biggest stage. He averaged five points per game in the NCAA tournament. Rambo was the No. 3 overall selection in the MLL draft, finishing with 15 points in six games as a rookie with the Charlotte Hounds.

Tom Schreiber
Toronto Rock/Ohio Machine

Already one of the best field lacrosse players in the world, the now two-time MLL MVP took his talents north of the border to be a part of the so-called American experiment with the NLL’s Toronto Rock. Schreiber, who had no previous box lacrosse experience, set a rookie record with 61 assists en route to NLL Rookie of the Year honors before returning to MLL to lead the Ohio Machine to their first league title.

Lyle Thompson
Georgia Swarm/Chesapeake Bayhawks

If you thought Thompson’s star might fade after a record-breaking college career, think again. The second-year pro led the Swarm to their first NLL title as the league’s MVP with 116 points. In the championship game against Saskatchewan, he set up the game-winning goal by his brother, Miles Thompson, with an underarm one-handed pass. He also proved willing to do more than just that which grabs highlights, scooping 126 loose balls and even winning 21 of 44 faceoffs. In limited MLL action with the Bayhawks, Thompson still made an impact with 29 points in six games.