"I was really surprised," Parks said. "I had no idea. I wasn't expecting it at all because this whole week has been a blur. The game-winning goal was really exciting, but I owe a lot of the success to my team. Dartmouth lacrosse as a whole has been recognized with this award. It shows how far we've come."
Parks is the second Big Green athlete to earn an award from WomensLax.com this season. Giovanniello was named the WomensLax.com National Rookie of the Week in April.
This is Giovanniello's third Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week award this season.
Dartmouth (11-3, 6-1 Ivy) notched an important 14-7 victory over Harvard University on Friday before upsetting the Terrapins (18-1, 5-0 ACC) in a 9-8 overtime victory on Sunday. The Big Green ended the Terps' 18-game win streak and previously undefeated season.
Giovanniello recorded 13 saves and grabbed a season-high five ground balls against the Crimson (9-5, 5-2 Ivy), while she made 11 saves against Maryland.
Facing the Terps' third-ranked offense that averaged over 15 goals per game, Giovanniello held Maryland to just eight goals and turned away two shots in the last 30 seconds of the match to send the game to overtime.
After posting a combined 0.615 save percentage against Harvard and Maryland, Giovanniello now leads the nation with a 0.538 save percentage for the season.
Parks dominated on offense over the weekend, netting a total of four goals and an assist. Before scoring the game-winning goal against Maryland with just eight seconds remaining in overtime, Parks tallied two goals in the first half.
Parks pointed to the victory over the Terrapins as the reason for her recognition.
"The Maryland game was probably what gave me that national spotlight," Park said. "That was such an upset no one expected that we would beat the number one team in the nation. I think that having that goal in overtime was definitely what they noticed."
Despite her success against the Terps, Parks views the game against the Crimson as the most critical turning point for herself and for the Big Green.
"The Harvard game was almost more important to me because that secured the Ivy League title," Parks said. "It's something we've been working at since 2005 and it was a great feeling to finally accomplish it. It shows that we're back on the grid and that Dartmouth lacrosse is a League force. We have the guts and the grits to compete with the best in the nation."
Recording her 100th career point against the Crimson, Parks earned an assist and scored a goal within the same minute of play. Parks now has 12 assists and 16 goals this season, making her fourth on the team in overall scoring with 28 points.
The University of Pennsylvania (11-4, 6-1 Ivy) earned the number-one seed and will host the Ivy League Tournament in Philadelphia since it beat Dartmouth earlier in the season, 10-9. In the first round of the tournament on Friday, Penn will face the number four Princeton University squad.
Sharing the League title with the Quakers, Dartmouth will confront Harvard, the third-seed team, in the first semifinal of the tournament at 4 p.m. on Friday.
The Ivy League Championship will be decided in the final round of the tournament, which will take place on Sunday at 1 p.m.
Staff writer Chad Hollis contributed reporting to this article.
