Hempstead, NY – Hofstra graduate-student Mark Ellis has been named a candidate for the 2019 Senior CLASS Award® in collegiate lacrosse selected as one of the top thirty NCAA men's lacrosse student-athletes, who excel both on and off the field.
 
An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School ®, the Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities. To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence: community, classroom, character and competition.
 
Ellis, a short-stick defensive midfielder in his second season at Hofstra after graduating from Stony Brook with a bachelor's degree in multidisciplinary studies in 2017, is a two-time Colonial Athletic Association Commissioner's Academic Honor Roll member at Hofstra. Coming to the Hofstra in January 2018, Ellis immediately took a leadership role with the Pride and was selected a team co-captain for the Pride in 2018-19. He has overcome personal and family adversity in his life to become not only a college graduate but a student who is just a few months away for earning a master's degree in sports science.

Ellis played in all 14 games for the Pride in 2018 and recorded one goal, scoring against his former school, Stony Brook. He picked up 25 ground balls on the season and was second on the team with eight caused turnovers. This season, he has played in all five games and has recorded one goal, against Utah, and one assist, against Stony Brook, and has picked up 12 ground balls and forced three turnovers.
 
Ellis has been involved in most of the Pride's community service activities. Those activities included Surfers Healing where Ellis and a few his teammates went with pro surfers to help kids with autism surf in the water as well as help with the clean-up after the event. He participated in the fundraiser Firefighter Stephen Siller FDNY Memorial Tunnel-To-Towers Run in lower Manhattan along with the Pride team. He also participated in gift-wrapping for needy children through Charlie Russo's Holiday Magic program, provided entertainment and goodwill for those needy children at the separate Christmas Magic Holiday party and participated in Hofstra's Shake-A-Rake program, which rakes the yards of elderly homeowners in the Hempstead/Uniondale community in the late fall.

The 30 candidates will be narrowed to 10 finalists later in the season, and those 10 names will be placed on the official ballot. Ballots will be distributed through a nationwide voting system to media, coaches and fans, who will select one candidate who best exemplifies excellence in the four Cs of community, classroom, character and competition.
 
The Senior CLASS Award winner will be announced in conjunction with the 2019 NCAA Men's Lacrosse National Championship in May.
 
For more information on all the candidates, visit seniorCLASSaward.com.