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Louisville Men's Soccer Claims Major BIG EAST Awards
Nov. 11, 2010
Short Hills, N.J. - Red-shirt junior Austin Berry, freshman Dylan Mares and the Louisville coaching staff came away with three of the seven major awards handed out at Thursday night's annual men's soccer awards banquet in Short Hills, N.J. at the Hilton Short Hills Hotel. On the night before the 29th annual BIG EAST Men's Soccer Championship, Berry was named the BIG EAST Defender of the Year and Mares was named BIG EAST Rookie of the Year, while Ken Lolla and his staff were recognized as the BIG EAST Co-Coaching Staff of the Year. The accolades didn't stop there as the Cardinals had three players named to the BIG EAST All-First Team in Berry, junior Nick DeLeon and All-American Colin Rolfe. Louisville also had players named to the BIG EAST All-Second, Third and Rookie teams as well. Mares was named to both the BIG EAST All-Second team and the All-Rookie team as well. Rounding out the BIG EAST All-Third team for Louisville were sophomore Paolo DelPiccolo and junior Kenney Walker. Berry is the second Cardinal to be honored as BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year. Berry helped Louisville achieve an undefeated season, starting 16 regular-season games. He helped the Cardinal defense record a 0.56 goals-against average and a .750 save percentage. Berry also accumulated eight points during the regular season on three goals and two assists. He earned the season's first BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Week award on Sept. 6. Mares is the second Louisville player to earn BIG EAST Rookie of the Year honors after Colin Rolfe won the award in 2008. The forward led the team with 18 points in the regular season and recorded a team-high eight goals. His 1.38 points per game ranked fifth in the league and his 0.62 goals per game was fourth. The freshman earned BIG EAST Rookie of the Week honors twice this season (Sept. 27 and Oct. 25) and BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Week on Oct. 4.
Head coach Ken Lolla and his staff led Louisville to its second-straight regular-season conference title and the No. 1 seed out of the Red Division in the BIG EAST Championship. Louisville holds an overall mark of 15-0-2 and ended BIG EAST regular-season play with a 9-0-0 record. This is the third time in four years Louisville has advanced to the BIG EAST Championship semifinals. The Cardinals set a school record with 14 regular-season wins. Lolla has guided the Cardinals to double-digit wins in four of his five seasons with the team. The Cardinals have been ranked in the national top 25 all season, and earned the program's first No. 1 ranking in the NSCAA/adidas poll. This is Louisville's second straight BIG EAST Coaching Staff of the Year honor. *portions of this release were provided by the BIG EAST Conference |
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