2019 Men's Soccer All-Conference Team
DAYTON, Ohio – On the eve of the tournament semifinals, the final four seeds gathered as the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Men’s Soccer All-Conference Team was announced Wednesday night.
The conference features five of the top 12 teams in the NCAA Super Region 3 rankings as the third edition was published this afternoon.
Thursday’s semifinals will be memorable matchups as No. 2 Ohio Valley, the reigning region champs, takes on No. 3 Cedarville at 5 p.m. ET. The temps will get a little more chilly for the nightcap between No. 1 Lake Erie and No. 4 Tiffin at 7:30 p.m. ET.
Lake Erie and Ohio Valley remain a constant at No. 1 and No. 3 while Cedarville and Tiffin made gains to No. 6 and No. 7 while Walsh is at No. 12.
Student-athletes from those institutions and more around the league were honored by the coaches on the first team, second team or honorable mention team, in addition to individual award winners.
There is certainly a possibility that with all four teams left in the conference tournament bracket, they could all be part of the NCAA Championship field as either the AQ or an at-large selection.
Lake Erie’s magical regular season translated into a clean sweep of the individual awards. Head coach Louie Rolko has been the driving force as he highlighted his team’s senior leadership among the factors towards the team’s success.
Early in the season, the tone may have been set from Javier Borreguero’s golden goal against Ashland. Borreguero, one of LEC’s top offensive threats, was on the honorable mention team, which speaks to the depth of every position in the conference this season.
The Storm collected their regular season championship trophy and carry a very nice 18-1-0 overall record into the semifinals tomorrow night against No. 4 Tiffin, defending tournament champs.
Two of Rolko’s seniors have been absolute stars, Great Midwest Offensive Player of the Year Jonathon Carr and Great Midwest Defensive Player of the Year Omar Oliveros-Alvarez. Lake Erie led all schools with six total all-conference selections.
Carr was a national player of the week and two-time conference player of the week as he rolled up a league-leading 31 points with 13 goals and five assists. The Storm have pitched 13 total shutouts and have blanked six consecutive opponents as Oilveros-Alvarez received defensive recognition. The Storm also rolled out Great Midwest Freshman of the Year Tom Akinola as he goes into the second round of the playoffs with eight goals and three assists to rank in the top 10 in goals and points.
Both Cedarville, Tiffin and Ohio Valley, had two different names on the all-conference first team.