SUWANEE, Ga. – Trinity
University, on the heels of its sixth undefeated conference season
since 2003, was rewarded with three of the four major awards in
exclusive 2010 all-SCAC voting by the league’s head
men’s soccer coaches. Zack Garcia was selected SCAC Offensive
Player-of-the-Year, Yuri Ribeiro was voted conference
Newcomer-of-the-Year, and Trinity head coach Paul McGinlay, for the
sixth consecutive year and 12th time overall, was named the SCAC
Coach-of-the-Year. Complete Release
In the same balloting, DePauw University’s Nathan Sprenkel
was tabbed as SCAC Defensive Player-of-the-Year.
Zack Garcia, a junior midfielder from Dallas, Texas and a team
captain for the top-ranked Tigers, is currently third in the league
with 29 points and is tied for third in goals scored with 12. His
five assists are good for seventh in the SCAC rankings. A second
team all-America selection a year ago, Garcia has been an integral
part of Trinity’s run in the NCAA tournament and is without a
doubt one of the countries best, most influential players. He is
the fourth consecutive Trinity player to earn SCAC Offensive
Player-of-the-Year honors.
In being selected the league’s Offensive POTY, Garcia
received seven votes from the coaches. Sophomore midfielder Connor
Silvestri of Hendrix College and senior forward Alex Keller of
Southwestern University received two votes each, and junior
midfielder Mark Lavery of Oglethorpe University received the
remaining vote.
Nathan Sprenkel, a junior goalkeeper from Zionsville, Ind., tied
the DePauw single-season record and led the SCAC in shutouts with
12. An incredibly talented keeper who anchored the Tigers’
back line, Sprenkel allowed just eight goals in 1657 minutes in net
for a league-low 0.43 goals against average (the fifth lowest
single-season total in SCAC history). Solid in the air and the
team’s best athlete, Sprenkel also posted the best save
percentage in the conference among all keepers, stopping 63 of 71
shots on goal (.887 save percentage). He is the third consecutive
DePauw player to win or share SCAC Defensive Player-of-the-Year
honors.
Sprenkel received six votes for SCAC Defensive POTY, followed
closely by sophomore defender Dennis Mask of Trinity who received
four votes. Senior defender Fernando Leon of Southwestern received
the remaining two votes.
Yuri Ribeiro, a first-year forward from Salvador, Brazil, leads
Trinity and is tied for the league lead in goals scored with 15.
His 35 points this season lead the SCAC and his five game-winning
goals are the second-most in the conference. Ribeiro, who has
played in every game this season, leads all first-year players in
scoring and has been a major catalyst behind Trinity’s
high-powered offense, which leads all of Division III in goals
scored (86) and goals scored per game (3.91). He is Trinity’s
first Newcomer-of-the-Year recipient since Robert C’deBaca in
2006.
Ribeiro received nine votes in the Newcomer-of-the-Year voting,
followed by first-year midfielder George Elliott of DePauw with two
votes. First-year defender Cory Gonzalez of Birmingham-Southern
College received the remaining vote.
Coach Paul McGinlay guided the top-ranked Trinity men to another
SCAC title, the program’s 14th overall and 13th in the last
15 years. In his 20th season as the head coach of the Tigers,
McGinlay has amassed an overall record of 336-59-23 (.831) heading
into this weekend’s sectional round. Trinity has amassed a
19-2-1 overall mark this season after securing a win and an
advancement on penalty kicks in the first two rounds of this
season’s NCAA tournament. McGinlay, a 12-time SCAC Coach
of the Year honoree, led his team to an undefeated and untied
conference mark – the ninth time in his career he has
accomplished that feat. This also marks the Tigers’ seventh
visit to the sectional round in its last nine NCAA tournament
appearances.
McGinlay received six votes from his peers in the COTY voting. Brad
Hauter of DePauw and Don Gregory of Southwestern split the
remaining six votes.
For the complete 2010 All-SCAC Men's Soccer release, click
here.