ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFKnights.com) – For the second time in his career, UCF men's soccer star Cal Jennings has been named as an All-American.
Jennings was named to the United Soccer Coaches First Team All-America on Thursday night as the first, second and third teams were revealed at the College Cup Banquet in Cary, N.C.
A lot was accomplished in the four years that Jennings was a part of the UCF brotherhood. The team went 5-11-0 in his first season as Jennings tallied just one goal as a winger. A lot changed from his freshman campaign to his sophomore year as Scott Calabrese took the reigns on the soccer program. Midway through the season, Jennings was switched to the nine, and slowly started to thrive, posting seven goals. From there, his career took off as he netted 20 goals in 2018 and tallied 18 in his farewell tour this season. His senior campaign saw the Knights participate in their first Sweet 16 matchup, a huge turnaround from his freshman season where the team was well under .500.
Jennings joins a legendary group of UCF alumnus by repeating as an All-American. Of the other 7 All-Americans in program history, only two had repeated. Winston DuBose was a three-time All-American from 1974-76 while Rick Bratincevic earned three nods as well, claiming All-American status from 1981-1983. This makes Jennings the lone player in program history to repeat in the Division I era.
The other two repeat All-Americans had outstanding careers as Knights. DuBose was recently inducted into the Florida Sports Hall of Fame, and it's easy to see why. The three-time All-American goalkeeper leads the Knights in career shutouts with 25 and sits in a tie of first place in lowest career goals allowed average of 0.91. Bratincevic, UCF's other three-time All-American, sits just behind DuBose in those categories with 21 shutouts and a goals allowed average of 1.07. Bratincevic holds the top two spots in saves in a single season, with 149 in 1982 and 143 in 1983. With numbers like that, it's no surprise that he sits atop the career saves leaderboard with 444 over his four-year career.
Jennings sits among Rony Francois, Heikki Ritvanen, Eric Vasquez, Warren Creavalle and Louis Perez as UCF's offensive All-Americans. Ritvanen tallied 88 goals in his four years as a Knight (1996-99) and a total of 188 points, both top of the leaderboard. Francois was passed up by Jennings in career goals (39) and career points (101) this season and currently sits in fifth behind Jennings in fourth. Vasquez collected a record 12 assists in his final campaign with UCF in 2003 and collected 18 in total from 2001-03. Creavalle was a midfielder who didn't creep onto any leaderboards in his two-year (2010-11) stint with the Knights. However, he was drafted into the MLS with the Houston Dynamo in 2011 and is currently the only All-American from UCF to make it to the league.
The All-American honor is not the first accolade that Jennings has collected this season. He was named the conference's offensive player of the year and named to the first team. He's also been named as a finalist for the Senior CLASS Award and was named as a semifinalist for the MAC Hermann Trophy. In addition to his work on the field, Jennings was named to the CoSIDA All-America Academic second team, making him just the second Knight to be awarded the honor.
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