STANFORD, Calif. – Four-time defending Pac-12 champion Stanford won three of the league's four major postseason awards for the third consecutive season on Tuesday afternoon.
Senior forward Foster Langsdorf was named Pac-12 Player of the Year, junior defender Tomas Hilliard-Arce was selected Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year and Jeremy Gunn earned Pac-12 Coach of the Year honors. The same three won each of those awards last season and they highlighted a group of seven Stanford student-athletes that received all-conference accolades.
Langsdorf, who was Co-Pac-12 Player of the Year last season, becomes the first in conference history to win the award twice. The Pac-12's career scoring leader with 35 goals is 15th nationally with 12 this season. He is also 11th in the country in total points (30) and 19th in goals per game (0.67) and leads the conference in all three categories.
The senior, who was fifth nationally with 15 goals a year ago, is the first Cardinal with back-to-back, double-digit goal campaigns since Jim Talluto in 1990 and 1991. He is sixth in school history in career goals and alone in seventh with 82 career points. Langsdorf's career goal total is the most for a Stanford player in 34 years. Jorge Titinger finished his four years with 48 from 1980-83, the second-best mark in school history.
The Pac-12's top defensive honor has been dominated by the Cardinal since it was first instituted in 2014 with Brandon Vincent (2014, 2015) and Tomas Hilliard-Arce (2016, 2017) each winning twice.
Another senior, Hilliard-Arce has scored has scored three times this season and assisted on three others all while anchoring the Cardinal's back line. He has started each of the 82 career games in which he has appeared, the third-most in school history. Stanford is fourth nationally in team goals against average (0.494) this season and only surrendered three goals in conference matches, the fewest in program history.
Since Hilliard-Arce and Langsdorf arrived on campus in 2014, the Cardinal has gone 61-10-12, won four conference titles and a pair of national titles.
In six years at Stanford, Jeremy Gunn has gone 80-25-17 (.725) and has now won four consecutive Pac-12 Coach of the Year awards, becoming the first in conference history to do so. His program is the winningest in the nation since 2014 with a .807 winning percentage and is even better in Pac-12 play, combining to go 30-3-7 (.838) the past four seasons.
Langsdorf and Hilliard-Arce headlined a group of seven Stanford men's soccer players that claimed spots on various All-Pac-12 teams on Tuesday.
Stanford led the way with a school-record tying five players on the All-Pac-12 first team. In addition to Langsdorf and Hilliard-Arce, senior forward Corey Baird, redshirt sophomore defender Tanner Beason and senior midfielder Drew Skundrich gave the Cardinal nearly half of the 11-member squad. It's the third time the Cardinal has boasted five conference first teamers (2000, 2016).
Redshirt junior midfielder Sam Werner earned his first conference postseason accolade in being named to the All-Pac-12 second team and redshirt senior goalkeeper Nico Corti also received his first award, receiving All-Pac-12 honorable mention. In his first year as Stanford's starting keeper, Corti is sixth in the country with a .501 goals against average and 11th with nine solo shutouts.
The Cardinal, the only team in the country in the top five in both scoring offense and team goals against average, begins its NCAA tournament at home on Sunday, Nov. 19 at 5 p.m. against the winner of Thursday night's match between Pacific and Cal State Fullerton.
