The Eastern Mennonite University women’s soccer team earned the Platinum Team Ethics and Sportsmanship Award from the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA).
The Team Ethics and Sportsmanship Award recognizes teams that exhibit fair play, sporting behavior and adherence to the laws of the game, reflected by the number of yellow or red cards they receive. The Royals did not earn a single card over the course of their 18-game season which qualified them for the Platinum Award.
EMU is one of five college teams that earned the platinum category, which will be formally acknowledged at the College Coaches Awards Reception on Thursday, Jan. 16 in conjunction with the 2020 United Soccer Coaches Convention. This is the fifth year in a row the Royals have been recognized for the award, but their first platinum honor while earning gold and silver the previous four.
Coach Ted Erickson applauds his team for how they play the game of soccer.
“I’m very proud on this year’s team! This award is just another example of the commitment they showed to training well and playing wisely which resulted in one of our better seasons over the past several years. Had we played a little more physical in a few games we could have had even better results, but overall this group will go down as one of our program’s greats.”
The award was open to all levels of collegiate soccer, both four-year and two-year institutions. The Royals were one of only three teams from the Old Dominion Athletic Conference recognized among the 95 total collegiate programs, joined by Sweet Briar and Bridgewater.
Eastern Mennonite finished the 2019 season with a record of 10-7-1, after getting off to the best start to a season in program history with a record of 7-1. The women were 4-5-1 in the ODAC earning them the ninth seed in the ODAC Tournament.
Click here to see the full list of teams awarded by the NSCAA.
That’s wonderful. Kudos to the whole team and management.