The Pacific West Conference today announced the 2012 All-PacWest Men’s Soccer Team and Grand Canyon University took top honors as senior forward
Saeed Robinson was named Player of the Year and head coach Petar Draksin garnered Coach of the Year honors.
This is the fifth such honor for Draksin, who was also selected as the conference Coach of the Year in 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2011. Draksin guided the Antelopes to their fifth PacWest crown in the past seven seasons with a 15-2-1 overall record and 12-1-1 mark in conference play.
"Petar has always done a great job of assembling quality student athletes within our soccer program," said Director of Athletics, Keith Baker. "We are excited to once again hear that he has been named the PacWest Coach of the Year and we congratulate him."
Robinson, who was additionally named First Team for forwards, led the conference with 17 goals and ranked second with 40 points. Following the regular season, he also ranked tied for fifth national with 1.00 goal per game and sixth with 2.38 points per game. Robinson was selected as the 2012 Preseason Player of the Year after being named Newcomer of the Year last season.
The ‘Lopes were also well-represented for each position, as freshman
Alberto Sanchez Garcia was named Honorable Mention for forwards. At the midfield position, junior
Brandon Hansen was named First Team, while
Oshane Brown and
Chris Green were placed on the Third Team.
Yared Solscheid garnered Honorable Mention honors for midfielders as well.
In their first seasons at GCU, Sanchez Garcia had five goals and five assists for 15 points, while Hansen collected eight goals and five assists for 21 points. Chris Green started each of GCU’s 18 games this season.
GCU took two of three spots on the First Team for defenders with senior
Alex Connally and junior
Zoran Nincevic, while
Brian Green was named Honorable Mention.
Connally and Nincevic have each started all of GCU’s games this season and were leaders of a defense that allowed the fourth-fewest goals and tied for the third-most shutouts in the conference.
Finally, Joshua Zehring earned Second Team accolades for goalkeepers. Zehring, in his first season as the starting goalkeeper, has started each of GCU’s games this season. Among conference leaders, he ranked tied for first in shutouts (5), third in goals against average (0.87) and save percentage (.773) and tied for fourth with 0.28 shutouts per game.
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