No. 2 men's soccer lands 5 AAC season awards

[PonyPride]

From SMUMustangs.com:

No. 2 SMU Earns Five Major Conference Awards Going Into AAC Championship Tournament

IRVING, Texas (SMU) — No. 2 SMU walked away with all but two of the major men's soccer honors as awarded by the American Athletic Conference, as chosen by the league coaches.

The AAC outright regular-season champion SMU took home five of the six major awards. Mads Westergren was named Defensive Player of the Year, Bailey Sparks was named Midfielder of the Year, Cole Johnson was named Goalkeeper of the Year, Niv Berkovitz was named Rookie of the Year and the SMU coaching staff earned the coveted Coaching Staff of the Year. SMU also led the league with four first team all-conference selections, which includes Westergren, Sparks, Johnson and forward Jelldrik Dallmann. Sophomore Alex Salvo joined Berkovitz as an all-rookie selection.

Westergren becomes the third Mustang to win American Defensive Player of the Year. SMU previously had Eddie Munjoma win in 2019, along with Jordan Cano in 2017.

Westergren, a Solroed Strand native, anchored the top-ranked defense in conference, with the Mustangs only allowing five goals in conference play. He started in all 15 games played so far, playing a total of 1,324 minutes.

Sparks ranks third in the AAC with five assists and averaged 81.2 minutes while starting all 15 games for the Mustangs. This marks the Mustang's second straight Midfielder of the Year honor — Knut Ahlander, 2022 — and their sixth overall.

The Mustangs added Goalkeeper of the Year, with Johnson. The four-time AAC Goalkeeper of the Week led the American in save percentage (.767), goals-against average (0.68).

The Mustangs enter the AAC Championship Tournament with eight shutouts overall. Seven were from Johnson — a league-high — while the one remaining was a team earned.

Berkovitz, a freshman hailing to the Hilltop from Israel, earned AAC Rookie of the Year. He is SMU's second-leading scorer entering the postseason with five goals — across 12 shots on goal — and an assist for 11 points.

SMU head coach Kevin Hudson and his staff were tabbed American Coaching Staff of the Year, marking the third time that the Mustangs have earned the AAC honor. The Mustangs finished the regular season with an 11-1-2 overall record, a 7-0-1 mark in conference play and were ranked No. 2 nationally in the Nov. 7 United Soccer Coaches poll.

Hudson's coaching staff consists of Associate Head Coach Ben Stoddard, Assistant Coach Michael King and Assistant Coach (Goalkeeping) Zak Downes.

Hudson recently earned his 100th win on Oct. 27, on the road against UAB. He currently holds a 101-39-17 overall record (.697).

Jelldrik Dallmann was one of two players to be a unanimous selection for First-Team All Conference. The graduate forward is SMU's leading scorer with 10 goals. The Kuhstedt, Germany native also has four assists, including two from the Mustangs' most recent 2-1 win over Temple.

Westergren was the lone repeat member as a first team all-conference selection, with Sparks and Johnson also being placed on the first team roster.

Sophomore Alex Salvo, in his first year as a starter, was placed on the American All-Rookie Team, with Berkovitz following suit.

Salvo has scored one goal so far this season — the game winner against Memphis in which the Mustangs won 2-1.

Next up for SMU, the Mustangs enter the AAC Championship Tournament as the No. 1 seed and will host No. 4 seed Memphis in the semifinals on Thursday at 7 p.m., with the game available for streaming on ESPN+.

2023 American Athletic Conference Men's Soccer Awards

Offensive Player of the Year

Lineker Rodrigues dos Santos, Jr., F, Memphis

Defensive Player of the Year

Mads Westergren, Jr., SMU

Midfielder of the Year

Bailey Sparks, Jr., SMU

Goalkeeper of the Year

Cole Johnson, Sr., SMU

Rookie of the Year

Niv Berkovitz, M, SMU

Coaching Staff of the Year

SMU

Head Coach Kevin Hudson, Associate Head Coach Ben Stoddard, Assistant Coach Michael King, Assistant Coach/Goalkeeper Coach Zak Downes

Team Fair Play Award

Memphis Tigers

First Team All-Conference

Jono Nyandjo, Sr., M, Charlotte

Riyon Tori, Jr., M, Charlotte

Tom Abrahamsson, Gr., D, Florida Atlantic

Eduardo Mustre, Jr., F, FIU

Jackson Kim, Sr., D, Memphis

Lineker Rodrigues dos Santos, Jr., F, Memphis*

Ajmeer Spengler, Sr., M, South Florida

Jalen Anderson, Gr., ST, South Florida

Jelldrik Dallmann, Gr., F, SMU*

Cole Johnson, Sr., GK, SMU

Bailey Sparks, Jr., M, SMU

Mads Westergren, Jr., D, SMU

*denotes unanimous selection

Second Team All-Conference

Brigham Larsen, Jr., F, Charlotte

Ian Pilcher, Jr., D, Charlotte

Victor Claudel, Gr., M, Florida Atlantic

Joao Domingues, So., D, FIU

Bernardo Dos Santos Monteiro, Jr., F, FIU

Owen Travis, Jr., D, FIU

Elie Bokota, Jr., M, Memphis

JD Gunn, Gr., GK, Memphis

Felix Ewald, So., F, Temple

Juan Zepeda, Fr., F, Temple

Sergio Baena, Sr., M, Tulsa

All-Rookie Team

Isaac Calderon, M, UAB

Humphrey, Doh, F, UAB

Natsuki Ogata, F, Charlotte*

Oliver Moller-Jensen, M, Florida Atlantic*

Giorgos Kondylis, M, Memphis*

Dino Starvros, D, Memphis*

Pedro Faife, M, South Florida*

Niv Berkovitz, M, SMU

Alex Salvo, M, SMU*

Juan Zepeda, F, Temple

Jared Aguilar, M, Tulsa*

[PonyPride]

Kevin Hudson won't say it, but I will: The American Athletic Conference got it wrong on the Offensive Player of the Year award.

Memphis forward Lineker Rodrigues dos Santos, Jr. is an absolute stud — that's beyond debate — and he scored the most goals (12) this season of any player in the AAC.

That said, the award should have gone to SMU's Jelldrik Dallman, who finished the regular season with two fewer (10) goals. All he did in Thursday's semifinal was score all three of the game's goals to lead the Mustangs to a 3-0 win over the Tigers ... and he only needed three shots to tally the hat trick.

The other awards the Mustangs earned from the AAC were well-deserved — all of them. But if the conference could take a mulligan on that Offensive Player of the Year vote, Dallman would have made it a clean sweep.

[Charleston Pony]

If they waited until the season ended and included post season play, you are right it would have been a no-brainer after his performance last night

[Terry Webster]

It looked like both the d and Dallman wanted to make the point about who should have gotten offensive player of the year.