PSUAC Releases 2024 Men's & Women's Soccer All-Conference Teams
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State University Athletic Conference released its 2024 Men's and Women's Soccer All-Conference teams on Thursday, capping the regular season with the annual awards. Nearly 80 student-athletes and coaches were recognized for their outstanding performances on the pitch this season, representing 10 different campuses.
The postseason awards are headlined by this year's Players of the Year--Zoe Gannon from Penn State Schuylkill earned the Women's Soccer award while Penn State Mont Alto's Thomas Oberholzer grabbed the Men's Soccer honor. It's the first time that neither Player of the Year was a forward, with Gannon working the backline for her team on defense and pushing up to score often and Oberholzer controlling the ball and field as a midfielder.
Oberholzer finished second in the PSUAC with 14 goals and added four assists for his team. In goals scored, Oberholzer trailed only Penn State Scranton's Fabrice Gatsinzi who was named the PSUAC Men's Soccer Rookie of the Year after finding the back of the net 16 times this season. The two tied for total points. The Men's Soccer Defender of the Year went to Penn State York's Gavin Martinez, whose breakout year in goal led York to the two-seed in the PSUAC Men's Soccer Championship tournament. Martinez averaged allowing just one goal per game and had a save percentage of .841, second-best in the league.
Gannon was named both the Women's Soccer Player of the Year and co-Defender of the Year with Mont Alto's Sophie Bowersox. Gannon, like Oberholzer, was second in the conference in goals with 13, trailing only teammate Grace Fenstermacher who was named to the First Team. Bowersox was solid in goal for Mont Alto, allowing a 1.60 goals against average and leading the PSUAC in save percentage at .810.
Roudning out our specialty awards was Schuylkill's Olivia Dress as the Women's Rookie of the Year. Dress was a catalyst for many of her team's goals, scoring 10 of her own while assisting on six others to finish fifth in the PSUAC in points.
The 2024 PSUAC Coach of the Year awards went to two first-time winners of the award, including first year head coach Christian Schmoyer, who led his team to a 7-0-2 mark in the men's soccer regular season. In the preseason coaches poll, York was voted to finish in the bottom half of the league but Schmoyer kept his team unbeaten in league play and earned a home game in the PSUAC Semifinals on Saturday, November 2. Kaylee Berkheiser, Schuylkill's leader, was named the Women's Soccer Coach of the year after guiding her team to seven wins, including a 4-2 mark in the PSUAC.
Full PSUAC Men's and Women's Soccer awards are included in the links below. PSUAC All-Conference awards are nominated by individual campuses and then voted upon by PSUAC coaches and administrators.