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Charles Earns Second GNAC Player of the Year Honor;
Charles and Milroy Headline Eight Yellowjackets Named All-Conference

BILLINGS, Mont. – A total of eight Montana State Billings men’s soccer players have been named to the Great Northwest Athletic Conference All-Star team, the conference office announced Monday.  Senior forward, Sam Charles also was named GNAC Player of the Year for the second time. 

“Sam had a great year and he deserves his second MVP award,” head coach Dan McNally said.  “Sam has had a wonderful career at MSUB, it will take a very special player to break the records he has set both at MSUB and in the conference.”

Charles wrapped up an impressive career at MSUB as he basically rewrote the school and conference record books.  He finished his career with 69 goals, 18 assists and an astounding 156 points.  In three seasons in the GNAC, he scored 62 goals, 16 assists and 140 points.  He has been named first team all-conference for three years in a row to be the only player on this year’s first team to accomplish that feat.

Charles began his record-setting performance in the GNAC with 19 goals, three assists and 41 points in 2007 helping the Yellowjackets to their best record in school history at 13-4-1.  For that performance he was named the 2007 GNAC Player of the Year.

Charles was one of seven unanimous selections to the first team, along with Xan Nixon of Saint Martin’s, Tyler Schultz of Seattle Pacific, Kellan Brown of Western Washington, Ruben Orozco of SMU, Alec Nelson of SPU and Elliot Morton of SPU.  MSUB’s Tom Milroy also earned first team honors, as well as Oscar Jimenez of WWU, Chris Brundage of WWU and Zac Lubin of SMU to round out the first team.

“It’s great that Tom has been recognized as a first team all-conference player as well,” McNally added.  “Tom has been an outstanding defender and captain for MSUB.  It is going to be very difficult to replace these two players, but that is what I have to do.”

The Yellowjackets had two second team selections in Chris Andre and Ross Carmichael and had four named to the honorable mention team in Garion Holian, Jeremy DeHerrera, Tyler Moriarty and Matt Mitchell.

Rounding out the rest of the specialty awards, Newcomer of the Year went to Renato Brito of Northwest Nazarene, while there were co-Freshmen of the Year winners in Jon Pearman of Seattle Pacific and Chris Brundage of Western Washington.  Rob Walker, head coach at league champion Saint Martin’s was named Coach of the Year.  It was SMU’s first GNAC championship in any sport in school history.

The Yellowjackets finished the season with an 11-5-2 record which marked their second-most wins in school history and third consecutive winning season.  It also marked the third season in a row of 10 or more wins.  Charles led the team with a league and school record 24 goals, seven assists and 55 points.  He set the all-time career points record and career goals record for the GNAC this season, as well as topping his own league and school records of consecutive games with a goal and set the consecutive games with a point record.

2009 GREAT NORTHWEST ATHLETIC CONFERENCE MEN’S SOCCER ALL-STAR TEAM

First Team - *++Sam Charles, MSUB (F, 6-3, Sr., Chiswell, England); *Xan Nixon, SMU (F, 6-1, So., Seattle, WA); *Tyler Schultz, SPU (F, 5-11, So., Scottsdale, AZ);  *Kellan Brown, WWU (M, 5-7, So., Tacoma, WA); *+Ruben Orozco, SMU (M, 5-10, So., Des Moines, WA);  *+Alec Nelson, SPU (M, 5-11, Sr., Lynnwood, WA); Oscar Jimenez, WWU (M, 5-8, So., Mt. Vernon, WA); *+Elliot  Morton, SPU (D, 6-4, So., Tacoma, WA); Tom Milroy, MSUB (D, 6-0, Sr., Aberdeen, Scotland); Chris Brundage, WWU (D, 6-1, Fr., Gig Harbor, WA); Zac Lubin, SMU (GK, 6-5, Jr., Bozeman, MT).  *Unanimous  +Repeater ++Two-time repeater

Second Team  – Gibson Bardsley, WWU (F, 5-11, Jr., Fall City, WA); Chris Andre, MSUB (M, 6-0, Jr., Billings, MT); Alonso Avila, NNU (M, 5-9, Sr., Yuma, AZ); Vlad Voin, SMU (M, 5-10, Jr., Everett, WA); Drew Williams, SPU (M, 5-7, So., Bend, OR); Mitch Barrows, WWU (M, 5-11, Sr., Ferndale, WA); Renatto Brito, NNU (M, 5-9, Jr., Boring, OR); Jon Pearman, SPU (D, 6-2, Fr., Glendale, AZ); Kyle Gaedke, NNU (D, 5-9, So., Puyallup, WA); Erik Orozco, SMU (D, 5-6, Jr., Federal Way, WA); Ross Carmichael, MSUB (D, 6-3, So., Weymouth, England); Kaleb Kuehn, SPU (GK, 6-0, Jr., Marysville, WA).

Honorable Mention -   Garion Holian, MSUB (F, 5-11, So., Missoula, MT); John Stump, NNU (F, 5-10, Jr., Yakima, WA); Chris Morris, SPU (M, 6-0, Fr., Mercer Island, WA); Jeremy DeHerrera, MSUB (M, 6-2, Sr., Kalispell, MT); Tyler Moriarty, MSUB (M, 6-0, Jr., Bozeman, MT) ; Salvador Sanchez, NNU (M, 5-10, Fr., Ontario, OR); Sean Connor, WWU  (D, 5-10. So., Mt. Vernon, WA); James Schmid, SMU (D, 5-11, So., Maple Valley, WA); Chris Jepson, WWU (D, 6-0, Sr., Bellingham, WA); Brandon Scott, SMU (D, 5-7, Fr., Tacoma, WA); Tony Armitage, SMU (D, 5-10, So., Federal Way, WA); Caleb Nyone, SPU (D, 6-0, Fr., Happy Valley, OR).; Matt Mitchell, MSUB (GK, 6-0, Jr., Thornton, CO);Cameron Copps-Tilley, WWU (GK, 6-1, Sr., Vancouver, WA)