On the eve of Thursday's NCAA Soccer Championship, the University of the Incarnate Word men's soccer team has had eight players named to the All-Lone Star Conference First Team by the league offices and have multiple other awards for on-the-field and in-the-classroom efforts by the 13-2-3 squad.
UIW is represented on the All-LSC 1st Team by James Nero, Edward Estrada, Callum Riley, Carlos Picado, Abraham Campos, Chuy Cortes, Vinny Bailey and Chris Fidler. Additionally, Max Gunderson was named to the All-LSC 2nd Team and Riley was named the Lone Star Conference 2011 Offensive Player of the Year – giving him the award in back-to-back seasons.
Nero (a sophomore from Charlotte, NC) and Estrada (a senior from Houston) are 1st Team defenders for being part of a unit that was nationally ranked in goals against avergage, while Campos (a junior from Visalia, CA who scored two goals and had an assist), Cortez (a senior from San Antonio who scored one goal, but had four assists) and Bailey (a sophomore from Southport, England who dished out an impressive eight assists and scored a goal) gave UIW three of the five midfielder spots on the top team. Riley (a senior from Lutterworth, England who led UIW with 19 points from his eight goals and three assists) and Picado (a senior from Costa Rica who was 2nd on the team in points with 18 from his seven goals and four assists) give Incarnate Word two forwards on the 1st Team while Fidler, the Cardinals' senior goalkeeper (who had nine shutouts and a 0.62 goals against average), was a First Team-winner as well.
Gunderson is a senior from Henderson, Nevada who scored two goals and played in every game for the Cardinals this season.
But on-the-field honors are only part of the story, as Fidler and fellow senior Michael Langford were named to the 2011 Lone Star Conference All-Academic Team.
Fidler was also given the honor of being the 2011 Lone Star Conference All-Academic Player of the Year as he wraps up his Master's Degree in Sports Management at University of the Incarnate Word.
Langford is a Business Management major from St. Louis Missouri who is an integral part of the Cardinals' nationally ranked defense. He was also given a 2011 All-Academic District 6 award from CoSIDA for his work in the classroom this season.
UIW will be hosting Midwestern State University (13-3-1) on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in an NCAA 2011 Division II Soccer Championship matchup at Gayle & Tom Benson Stadium.
Incarnate Word (13-2-3 overall) and Midwestern State (13-3-1 overall), both members of the Lone Star Conference, have faced off twice this season– a 1-0 win for UIW in San Antonio and a 3-0 win for MSU in Wichita Falls – and have had 38 games against each other, including playoff games.
Currently the Mustangs, the No. 2 team in the South Central Region, have an 18-15-5 advantage over the Cardinals in the series. In the post-season, MSU has beaten the Cardinals all four times the two teams have faced one another – a 3-2 loss in 2002 (in the NCAA DII Midwest Regional Finals), a 1-0 loss in 2003 (in the NCAA DII Midwest Regional Finals), a 2-0 defeat in 2006 (in the first round of the NCAA DII Midwest Regional Tournament) and a 2-1 OT loss in 2008 (in the first round of the NCAA DII Regional Tournament).
The winner of Thursday's matchup will go on to face the winner of Fort Lewis and Metro State, which is happening before the UIW-MSU matchup in Colorado. If Incarnate Word beats Midwestern State and Metro State beats Fort Lewis (the top seed in the regional bracket), then Metro State will head to San Antonio for a game on Sunday. If UIW wins and Fort Lewis wins, the Cardinals will fly out to Colorado to face the Skyhawks.
