Here is a video montage from last night's Senior Awards Banquet at the Campus Center. Sean Busch and Jackie Lyons took home their respective Athlete of the Year honors, while Chris Piekos was named the Inspirational Award recipient and Samantha Schnoerr and Anthony Nelson were named the Scholar Athletes of the Year.
Adam Miller of the Daily Collegian has a nice column on the veteran leadership provided to the men's soccer team by goalkeeper Chris Piekos.
Goalkeeper Chris Piekos is not your average senior. You only need to look at his age - 26 years old - to figure that out.
To put that in perspective, when the keeper graduated high school, midfielder Stuart Amick - also a senior - just graduated junior high.
While he is significantly older than any of his teammates, Piekos isn't playing for the Massachusetts men's soccer team at his age because of academic problems, but because of his willingness to serve for his country.
After his freshman year at Rivier College, Piekos served two deployments over four years in Iraq and received a Bronze Star. Needless to say, his background is a little off the beaten trail for a soccer player.
Piekos's maturity leads Minutemen After a stout start to Atlantic 10 play with four shutouts and just one goal allowed, the UMass men's soccer team is starting to climb the ranks of the national defensive stat charts.
Click Here For The Full Listing:
NCAA® Ranking Summary
Keeper Chris Piekos now ranks 8th nationally in save percentage (.870), 9th in saves per game (5.58) and 26th in goals-against average (0.739).
With 6 assists, Ben Arikian ranks 29th in total assists and 36th in assists per game.
In the Atlantic 10 (
Conference-Only Stats Leaders), UMass leads the league in goals allowed (1), goals-against-average (0.19), and shutouts (4) in five games played. Piekos leads the league in GAA, Shutouts and save percentage (.962).
The men's soccer team had a huge weekend sweeping Temple and Saint Joseph's on the road this past weekend to remain undefeated (4-0-1) in Atlantic 10 play to stay in 2nd place in the league standings.
New England Soccer News: UMass edges St. Joseph's 1-0
The Daily Collegian has
a preview up on this Saturday's big A-10 match at Rhode Island for the men's soccer team. The Minutemen opened the A-10 schedule with a 1-0-1 record last weekend and are in a tie for 2nd in the league standings.
The Collegian also has a notebook in the paper that examines some of the struggles the Minutemen have had in the 2nd half of games this year.
Despite some early fireworks with first half goals for each side, the UMass men's soccer team fought Dartmouth to a 1-1 double-overtime draw on Wednesday afternoon. It was the fifth double overtime match of the year for the Minutemen. Keeper Chris Piekos was the Man of the Match with a career-high 12 saves to keep the Big Green at bay as the ripped off 22 shots on the day.
UMass soccer goalie Chris Piekos pitched his 8th shutout of the season as his D-Y Celtic team
defeated the Nauset Storm, 3-0, to reach the Cape Cod Amateur Soccer League Championship game on Sunday. D-Y Celtic will look to repeat after winning the championship in 2009. Men's soccer preseason camp at UMass is just under two weeks away.
With the soccer season just around the corner, keeper Chris Piekos continues his offseason training as part of the D-Y Celtic team in the
Cape Cod Amateur Soccer League. Piekos has helped the team reach the 2nd round of the playoffs after Celtic won the regular-season title. In a little over a month, fans will be able to see Piekos and the Minutemen back on the pitch at Rudd Field.
UMass senior goalie Chris Piekos pitched his
7th shutout of the summer yesterday as D-Y Celtic defeated Wellfleet 5-0 in the Cape Cod Amateur Soccer League. The win gave D-Y its 2nd regular season title. Playoffs for the Cape league will begin on Sunday.
Click Here for more information on the CCASL.