WCC Men's Soccer Earns Five All-Americans, 16 All-Region - West Coast Conference
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Men's Soccer

WCC Men's Soccer Earns Five All-Americans, 16 All-Region

TEAM RELEASES
PACIFIC | PORTLAND | SAINT MARY'S | SAN DIEGO | SAN FRANCISCO | SANTA CLARA


Sixteen from the West Coast Conference earned All-Region honors while Pacific's Camden Riley and Wouter Verstraaten, Portland's Benji Michel and Saint Mary's Remi Prieur and Jake Rudel earned All-America honors, as voted on by the United Soccer Coaches.

For the first time in the history of Pacific's men's soccer program, two Tigers were named as All-Americans in a season in seniors Camden Rileyand Wouter Verstraaten, who both were named as second-team selections. Pacific's two All-Americans tied for the second most All-Americans in NCAA Division I this year; multiple teams had three selections. Riley, the WCC Player of the Year, scored nine goals this season with five coming in the final six games which helped propel the Tigers to an NCAA Tournament berth as an at-large team. He set the single-season program record for points with 23 and tied the single-season records for goals with nine and game-winning goals with four. Verstraaten, the WCC Defensive Player of the Year, led the Tigers backline to seven shutouts this season including one against UC Riverside in the NCAA Tournament's First Round. The Tigers' center back scored one goal this season against Western Michigan which helped secure a tie for the Tigers in the final non-conference game of the year. Verstraaten started all 18 games as a defender and was booked only twice this season. 

Michel also earned Second Team All-America honors. He opened the year by scoring a goal in six straight games, and he was named Top Drawer Soccer's National Player of the Week on Oct. 1. He ranks third nationally with seven game-winners, and he also had two assists for a total of 24 points. Michel scored the only goal during Portland's 1-0 win over UCLA in the NCAA First Round. Michel is the first Pilot to be named an All-American by the United Soccer Coaches, which was previously known as the NSCAA, since Nate Jaqua in 2002.

For the first time in program history, Saint Mary's had two student-athletes named All-American by United Soccer Coaches as goalkeeper Remi Prieur and forward Jake Rudel were both selected to the Third Team. Prieur earned a spot on Third Team after putting up multiple nation-leading statistics in goal for the Gaels. The redshirt junior tied for first in the country in shutouts with 14 and did so in two fewer matches than Kentucky's Enrique Facusse. Prieur was first in goals against average (.387) among goalkeepers with over 1,000 minutes played and first in save percentage as well. The Gaels' keeper set the program's all-time record in a single-season with 18 en route to a WCC Goalkeeper of the Year Award. Rudel was among the best offensive players in the WCC as he led the conference in goals (13) and points (31) this season. Among national rankings, the junior ranked t-10th and t-11th in those categories, respectively. Over a five-game stretch early in the season, Rudel scored seven goals including a hat trick performance against Cal Poly on Sept. 9. The Fort Collins, Colo. native also tallied five more goals in seven conference matches. 

All-Region selections from the WCC include first teamers Michel, Prieur, Riley, Rudel, Verstraaten, Jakub Svehlik (Saint Mar's), Rey Ortiz (Portland) and Anders Engebretsen (Saint Mary's); second teamers Kienan Weekes (Portland), Filippo Zattarin (Saint Mary's), Gio Magana-Rivera (Portland) and MIguel Berry (San Diego); and third teamers Bob Groenendijk (Pacific), Sean Bowman (San Francisco), Javier Ruiz Duran (Santa Clara) and Malcolm Dixon (Portland)