Dec. 1, 2009
By Brian Ormiston
UCFAthletics.com
ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFAthletics.com) - Postseason honors are starting to be handed out across the country, and both the UCF men's and women's soccer programs received one of the highest team accolades this week. The Knights earned the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) Team Academic Awards for the 2008-09 academic year, as both teams had grade-point averages of 3.0 or higher.
UCF and Florida Gulf Coast were the only two Division I schools in the state of Florida to have both the men's and women's programs selected for the award. In all 97 schools in all divisions had both teams post GPAs of 3.0 or better.
On the field, the men's team finished the 2009 season 6-7-3 and 2-5-1 in Conference USA play. The young team which routinely started seven freshmen made impressive strides from the year before, scoring nine more goals than in 2008 despite playing less games. Freshman Nicholas Robson led the team and all C-USA freshmen with 22 points (8 goals, 6 assists). Junior Yaron Bacher, sophomore Kevan George and Robson all picked up all-conference accolades.
For the women's squad, the Black and Gold reached the NCAA Tournament Second Round for the third-straight year and was ranked as high as No. 8 in the country. UCF claimed the outright C-USA regular-season crown as it went 17-5-1 on the year, highlighted by a No. 3 national seed in the postseason. Head coach Amanda Cromwell was selected as the C-USA Coach of the Year, while senior Becca Thomas claimed C-USA Midfield of the Year honors.
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