INDIANAPOLIS - Following the announcement of the Presidents' Cup winner and the Scholar-Athletes of the Year, the Great Midwest Athletic Conference concludes its postseason honors with the presentation of the 2013-14 Male and Female Athlete of the Year awards.
The awards were presented on Thursday evening in Nashville, Tennessee during the conferences Spring Meetings and Awards Reception.
MALE ATHLETE OF THE YEAR:
James Pucci
Davis & Elkins College
Men’s Soccer - Junior
James Pucci of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference regular-season champions and tournament runner-up finished the season as the G-MAC Men’s Soccer Offensive Player of the Year. Pucci was not only the statistical leader in all nine of the G-MAC offensive categories, including game winners, but he also led all of NCAA Division II in goals with 27, points with 65, and points per game with 3.61. His 1.5 goals per game was second in the nation, just 0.1 behind the leader. He also ranked seventh in assists per game with 0.61 and eighth in total assists with 11.
This past season, Pucci’s top performances all came in conference. On October 3 against the Panthers, Pucci posted a conference best nine points, which set a new conference record that was later tied by Jose Noriega of Alderson Broaddus.
On September 19 against Ohio Valley and then again on November 7 against Salem International, he scored a conference-record four goals, which has been done by three other players, though no one more than once in their career.
FEMALE ATHLETE OF THE YEAR:
Jacoby Ziegler
Cedarville University
Women’s Soccer - Sophomore
Jacoby Ziegler of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference regular-season champions finished the season as the G-MAC Women’s Soccer Offensivle Player of the Year for the second-straight season. During a majority of the season, Ziegler led the entire NCAA Division II in points and goals, but finished second in points with 50 and third in goals with 20.
She was two points and two goals behind the nations leaders. She also finished seventh in points per game (2.27) and goals per game (0.909) and was 18th in total assists and 28th in assists per game.
Ziegler led the G-MAC in all eight offensive categories and she also posted a conference-best eight points in a single game, which came against Davis & Elkins on October 10. She also scored a conference-high three goals in a single game three seperate times, accounting for half of the three-goal games posted this season in the conference.
Ziegler scored twice as many goals as any her teammates did this season and she is also the G-MAC’s all-time leader in points with 79 and goals with 33.