STANFORD, Calif. – The individuals that make up the Pac-12’s championship team were honored on Tuesday afternoon when the league announced its yearly awards as determined by a polling of the league’s coaches.
Junior forward Jordan Morris was named Pac-12 Player of the Year, senior defender Brandon Vincent was selected as the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year and Jeremy Gunn earned Pac-12 Coach of the Year honors. The three highlighted a group of eight Stanford student-athletes that received all-conference accolades.
Morris and Vincent, MAC Hermann Trophy candidates this season, were also 2014 NSCAA/Continental Tire First Team All-Americans. Stanford was the only school in the country to return multiple first team All-Americans.
Morris has a career-high eight goals in 13 appearances for Stanford in 2015. In his last nine games with the Cardinal, the junior has seven goals, two assists and 16 points. He is currently with the U.S. Men’s National Team for its first two matches of the 2018 World Cup Qualifying campaign. Morris is Stanford’s third-ever Pac-12 Player of the Year and first since 2001. Ryan Nelsen (2000) and Roger Levesque (2001) took home the award in the first two years of Pac-12 men’s soccer.
Vincent, the 2015 Pac-12 Men’s Soccer Scholar-Athlete of the Year, has anchored Stanford’s back line over the past four years, starting in each and every one of his 75 appearances. The two-time captain was also the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year in 2014 and is the only person to ever win the award, which was instituted last season.
The Cardinal senior is also one of 10 men’s finalists for the 2015 Senior CLASS Award® in collegiate soccer. That award is given to a NCAA Division I senior student-athlete who has notable achievements in four areas of excellence: community, classroom, character and competition.
Academically, the senior owns a 3.3 GPA and has twice been a Pac-12 all-academic selection. One of 23 Stanford student-athletes majoring in economics, Vincent will graduate two quarters early, finishing his studies at the end of the fall session.
In just his fourth year at the helm, Jeremy Gunn has already led Stanford to three straight seasons of 10 or more wins, becoming the third coach in program history to accomplish the feat along with Bobby Clark (1996-2000) and Nelson Lodge (1978-83). The Cardinal, back-to-back Pac-12 champions, will also appear in its third consecutive NCAA tournament beginning later this month, the second-longest stretch in Stanford history behind a six-year run from 1997 to 2002.
Gunn also received recognition from his peers as the conference’s best last season. His award in 2015 is the fifth time a Stanford coach has been awarded Pac-12 Coach of the Year. Gunn is the third head man in league history to win back-to-back coach of the year honors.
Morris and Vincent headlined a group of eight Stanford men’s soccer players that claimed spots on various All-Pac-12 teams on Tuesday.
Morris, Vincent and his fellow senior captain Ty Thompson were Stanford’s representatives on the All-Pac-12 first team. It’s Morris’ third straight selection to the league’s first team, Vincent’s second and Thompson’s first.
Stanford led the way with five selections to the 12-man All-Pac-12 second team in Corey Baird, Andrew Epstein, Tomas Hilliard-Arce, Foster Langsdorf and Eric Verso.
The sophomore Baird, also an All-Pac-12 second teamer as a freshman, second on the team with eight assists, is fourth in points (12) and has also added a pair of goals. He is 24th in the country in assists and 26th in assists per game (0.44).
The Cardinal will enter postseason play with the nation’s 11th-best defense in terms of goals against average (0.64). Goalkeeper Andrew Epstein’s seven solo shutouts in 2015 are tied for ninth in program single-season history and Stanford’s nine total clean sheets are its most since 2009. He was also on the All-Pac-12 second team in 2014.
Central defender Tomas Hilliard-Arce, a preseason All-Pac-12 pick, lived up to his billing and earned his second consecutive spot on the league’s second team. He tallied his first career brace in a 3-1 win over San Francisco on Sept. 18 with headers in the 20th and 36th minutes and added another goal in a 3-1 victory over San Diego State on Oct. 26.
Stanford is also 10th in the country in assists per game (2.06) and is led by redshirt senior Eric Verso, whose 11 assists are fourth in the NCAA. He is the ninth Stanford player since 1980 to reach that number, the fourth since 1985 and the first since 2002. No Cardinal had reached double digits in assists since Levesque (13) and Todd Dunivant (11) in 2002. It’s Verso’s first All-Pac-12 selection.
The Cardinal begins its NCAA tournament at home on Sunday, Nov. 22 at 5 p.m. against the winner of Thursday night’s match between Cal State Fullerton and Santa Clara.