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January 12, 2010
BUNBURY, O’HARA NAMED SOCCER NEWS NET PLAYERS OF THE YEAR
Akron sophomore Teal Bunbury and Stanford senior Kelley O’Hara have been named the Soccer News Net College Players of the Year.
The national award was selected based on on-line fan voting (40%) and the votes of the editorial staffs of the six sites in the Soccer News Net (New England Soccer News, Big Apple Soccer, Philly Soccer News, ChicagoLand Soccer News, Dallas Soccer News and LA Soccer News).
This is the third annual award.
Bunbury, who led the Zips to the Men’s College Cup Final, where they fell to champions Virginia in penalty kicks, also won this year’s MAC Hermann Trophy.
Bunbury, who earned NSCAA All-America First Team honors in 2009, was the most dangerous striker in college soccer, leading the nation with 17 goals scored, five of them game-winners. In addition, four of his five assists set up game-winning goals.
In all, the native of Prior Lake, Minn., recorded at least one point 16 times in 25 games and had four multigoal games in 2009. Bunbury enjoyed an incredible run from late September to early November, scoring 14 goals in a 12-game span, including game-winners against Florida Atlantic, Virginia Tech, Buffalo and Penn State. His 39 points led the Zips to an undefeated season.
O’Hara, who led Stanford to an undefeated regular season before falling in the college cup to eventual champion North Carolina, was on Friday named the winner of the MAC Hermann Trophy. This is the first time in the three years Soccer News Net has been naming a player of the year that one of the winners also won the Hermann Trophy.
O'Hara, a native of Fayetteville, Ga., led Stanford (25-1) to its best record and to its first NCAA championship final, shattering school scoring records along the way and leading the nation in goals and points by scoring 26 goals, 13 assists, 65 points.
A 2009 NSCAA first-team All-America, O'Hara is the Pacific-10 Conference's Player of the Year and an ESPN The Magazine first team Academic All-American.
As a junior in 2008, she was a second-team NSCAA All-American and first team All-West Region choice after finishing the season with 13 goals and 12 assists for 38 points. The Cardinal’s only regular season loss came in a game she missed because of a concussion.
In her sophomore year, she was a second-team NSCAA All-American and first-team All-Pac-10 while being named a Hermann Trophy semi-finalist. O’Hara was the team's leader in goals (9), points (23), game-winning goals (4).
O’Hara started her career at Stanford off with an All-Pac-10 first-team selection as she led the team in points (20) and goals (9).
A member of the U.S. U-23 national team pool she played for the team on a May, 2009, tour of Northern Ireland and Ireland, then earned first call-up to the senior U.S. national team in March 2007, and attended training camp in April. She was called into the upcoming national team camp at The Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif. from Jan. 17 through Feb. 4.
REGIONAL PLAYERS OF THE YEAR:
New England Soccer News: Vicki DiMartino, Boston College/Andre Akpan, Harvard
Big Apple Soccer (NY/NJ): Vicki DiMartino, Boston College /Ryan Kinne, Monmouth
Philly Soccer News: Danielle Toney, Penn State/ Conor O’Brien, Bucknell
Chicagoland Soccer News: Lauren Cheney, UCLA/David Meves, Akron
Dallas Soccer News: Courtney Barg, Notre Dame/ Andre Akpan, Harvard
LA Soccer News: Lauren Cheney, UCLA / Sam Hayden, UC-Santa Barbara
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