STANFORD Calif. – Stanford center back Tomas Hilliard-Arce was named to the TopDrawerSoccer 2016 Men's Division I Preseason Best XI first team on Tuesday.
Hilliard-Arce and the No. 1 Cardinal begin the 2016 season on Friday at 5 p.m. when they host Penn State on the Pac-12 Network. Fans can purchase season tickets, mini plans and single-game seats by visiting gostanford.com/tickets or calling 800-STANFORD.
Stanford's opener against Penn State is its first of 10 matches this season at a place where it has experienced significant success over the past two years. The Cardinal was unbeaten at Cagan Stadium in 2015 and is 19-1-6 in its last 26 matches on The Farm. The program's goals-against average at home since 2014 is a miniscule 0.54.
The team closed out its 2-0 exhibition slate with a late road win at Cal Poly last Wednesday night. In the waning seconds of regulation, Hilliard-Arce played a ball into the box from deep, Foster Langsdorf took the pass and scored at the near post with his left at 89:51 to lift the Cardinal to a 2-1 win.
Hilliard-Arce started all 23 games for the Cardinal a season ago. Stanford's defense surrendered just 15 goals, its lowest total since 2001 (13), and finished sixth nationally in goals against average (0.62), the sixth-best mark in program history. He also scored three goals as a sophomore, tallying his first career brace in a 3-1 win over San Francisco on September 18 with headers in the 20th and 36th minutes and adding another in a 3-1 win over San Diego State on October 26. In 2015, he was voted to the TopDrawerSoccer Best XI second team and the All-Pac-12 second team.
The native of Matthews, N.C. has started all 42 matches in his first two seasons on The Farm. Last week, he was named to the 2016 Preseason Men's Soccer All-Pac-12 Team along with teammates Corey Baird and Andrew Epstein. On Monday, Hilliard-Arce was among five collegiate players featured by TopDrawerSoccer as having the potential to play for the USMNT in the future.
2016 TDS Preseason Best XI First Team
| Position | Player | School |
|---|---|---|
| GK | Robert Moewes | Duke |
| D | Grant Lillard | Indiana |
| D | Tomas Hilliard-Arce | Stanford |
| D | Kyle Bjornethun | Seattle |
| M | Jacori Hayes | Wake Forest |
| M | Jackson Yueill | UCLA |
| M | Arun Basuljevic | Georgetown |
| M | Adam Najem | Akron |
| M | Ian Harkes | Wake Forest |
| F | Abu Danladi | UCLA |
| F | Mauro Cichero | SMU |