SMU forward Dane Saintus keeps his eye on the ball as a Central Arkansas defender (left) closes in. (Stuart Palley)
The No. 5 SMU men’s soccer team (13-3-2) opens the Conference USA tournament on Wednesday at noon in Birmingham, Ala. They will take on the FIU Panthers (3-13-2, 2-6-0) in the opening round of the tournament.
In the only meeting between the two teams this year, the Mustangs dominated the Panthers by a score of 3-1.
Conference USA came out with its regular-season awards, and the Mustangs were heavily rewarded for their stellar play over the 2007 season.
Eight Mustangs were named to All-Conferences Teams and one Mustang was named to the All-Freshman team.
The Mustangs 2007 All-Conference First Team members were junior midfielder Bruno Guarda, senior midfielder Ben Shuleva and senior defender Adrian Chevannes.
Shuleva has started in every game during his two-year career at SMU and scored three goals this season. Chevannes can play anywhere on the field, but has spent most of the year playing as a defender. The Mustangs defense has allowed less than one goal per game on average in spite of various injuries.
Guarda was also named the C-USA player of the year after tying for the team lead in goals with seven and leading the team in assists and points with seven and 21, respectively. Guarda has been a core member of the Mustangs for three years now considering he has started in all but three games during his collegiate soccer career.
Sophomore forward Dane Saintus along with junior defender Ryan Mirsky were named to the Second Team All-Conference. Saintus has 12 points on the season (three goals and six assists) and gives opposing teams trouble with a combination of speed and ball skills. Mirsky has been a mainstay on the SMU backline that has seen multiple players go down with injuries.
There were also three Mustangs named to the Third Team. Senior goalkeeper Steve Sandbo was named to the team after posting five shutouts and a 0.91 goals against average. The other two members were junior midfielder Jeff Harwell (two goals, four assists) and senior midfielder Scott Corbin (one goal, three assists).
Overall, the Mustangs eight All-Conference Team players were the most from any other school in the conference.
Freshman defender Chad Bauman was selected to the All-Freshman Team after playing in 14 of the Mustangs’ 18 games. He started most of the Mustangs conference games and gained critical game experience for the Conference Tournament.
The winner of FIU and SMU plays again on Friday at 5 p.m. against the winner of Kentucky and Marshall. The Mustangs lost to No. 3 seed Kentucky Wildcats in their final conference game by a score of 2-1.
