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University of Massachusets Athletics
Simmons Earns A-10, Regional Soccer Honors
October 16, 2006 | Men's Soccer
Oct. 16, 2006
AMHERST, Mass. - Redshirt sophomore Zack Simmons (Durham, N.H.) was named the Atlantic 10 Men's Soccer Performer of the Week and named to the TopDrawerSoccer.com Team of the Week after earning shutouts against Saint Joseph's and Temple this past weekend. The two clean sheets gives Simmons 10 for the year which sets a new school record. He is now just three shy of setting the career mark for all-time shutouts by a goalkeeper.
Simmons helped the Minutemen pick up four points in the A-10 race with the weekend shutouts in the win over Temple and a tie against Saint Joseph's. He made eight saves including five against Temple facing a total of 14 shots on the weekend.
Simmons now has 14 career shutouts and lowered his 2006 goals against average to 0.78. He improves his save percentage to .847 and has made 72 saves.
The Minutemen moved into seventh place in the league standings after the weekend and are still in the running for the A-10 tournament after starting the conference schedule with a 1-3-0 record.
As a whole, UMass is in the midst of one of its finest defensive seasons ever. The stingy UMass defense continues to rank fourth all-time in school history for allowing the fewest amount of goals at 13 to tie the 1979 and 1965 clubs.
Jon Gruber previously held the school record for shutouts in a season at nine set in 1991. Simmons is now in third place for career shutouts all-time with 14. Bryan O'Quinn holds that record with 16 spanning the 1998-2001 seasons.
This is Simmons' second A-10 Performer of the Week honor. He was also named the league's top performer on Sept. 11 after leading UMass to a No. 22 national ranking. Other honors this season include ECAC Goaltender of the Week (his second career honor), being named to the SoccerTimes.com Team of the Week (9/11), being named the UMass Co-Athlete of the Week (9/4), being named to the UMass/Holy Cross Invitational All-Tournament Team, being named to the Navy Anders Classic All-Tournament Team, and being named the Anders Classic Tournament MVP.
In 2005, he earned A-10 Rookie of the Week honors and was named to the league's all-rookie team.
Simmons is the first two-time A-10 Performer of the Week in a single season since Jeff Deren did so in 2002. In all, only four players have been named the league's performer of the week more than once since the conference formed in 1987: Simmons (2006), Deren (2002), Adam Black (1999), and Randy Jacobs (1993, 1992).
The Minutemen continue their hunt for an A-10 berth on Sunday when UMass heads to Rhode Island for a 1 p.m. kick-off.
