STANFORD, Calif. – Stanford seniors Tomas Hilliard-Arce and Foster Langsdorf are semifinalists for the 2017 MAC Hermann Trophy.
The MAC Hermann Trophy is the highest individual intercollegiate award administered by United Soccer Coaches and presented annually at the Missouri Athletic Club in St. Louis. This year's trophy presentation and banquet will take place Friday, Jan. 5.
Three from the group of 15 will be named finalists in mid-December following a vote of NCAA Division I coaches.
The MAC Hermann Trophy, the most coveted individual honor in NCAA Division I soccer, has been awarded annually since 1967. In 2015, two-time Stanford All-American and 2016 Major League Soccer Rookie of the Year Jordan Morris became the first Cardinal men's player to win the honor.
Stanford, one of just four schools in the history of the award to have both men's and women's winners, is also the only one with semifinalists on both lists this year. Tierna Davidson, Catarina Macario and Andi Sullivan are up for the Hermann Trophy on the women's side.
The Cardinal has been the nation's best team since Hilliard-Arce and Langsdorf arrived on campus prior to the 2014 season. Stanford has won a pair of national championship, four Pac-12 titles and is the country's winningest program the past four years with an overall record of 62-10-13 (.806).
Also a Hermann Trophy semifinalist in 2016, Hilliard-Arce is a two-time Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year and has led a Cardinal defense that has posted 44 shutouts among his 84 career appearances at center back. Stanford has posted a 0.62 goals against average since 2014, has finished in the top 10 nationally that category the past two years and is currently third this season (0.440). The Cardinal is in the midst of an NCAA-record run of nine consecutive postseason shutouts spanning 932:17 of match time. A force on set pieces, Hilliard-Arce also has 12 career goals and five assists, including three goals and three assists this season.
Earlier this month, Lansgdorf became the first two-time Pac-12 Player of the Year in conference history. The league's career scoring leader with 36 goals, he is 11th nationally with 13 this season, ninth in the country in total points (32) and sixth in game-winning goals (5). Langsdorf was fifth nationally with 15 goals a year ago and is the first Cardinal with back-to-back, double-digit goal campaigns since 1990 and 1991. Sixth in school history in career goals and alone in seventh with 84 career points, his career goal total is the most for a Stanford player in 34 years. Langsdorf has 17 career game-winning goals, including 13 the past two seasons to go along with 12 career assists.
The two are also finalists for the 2017 Senior CLASS Award, which recognizes seniors that have notable achievements in four areas of excellence: community, classroom, character and competition.