Elite 90 for Thomas

CARY, N.C. – Redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Andrew Thomas was honored by the NCAA as this year's men's soccer Elite 90 award winner at Thursday night's College Cup Team Tribute at Prestonwood Country Club in Cary, N.C.
 
The Elite 90, an award founded by the NCAA, recognizes the true essence of the student-athlete by honoring the individual who has reached the pinnacle of competition at the national championship level in his or her sport, while also achieving the highest academic standard among his or her peers. The Elite 90 is presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average participating at the finals site for each of the NCAA's championships.
 
Thomas, an engineering physics major with a 3.94 GPA, is Stanford's 20th winner of the award across all sports since it was instituted prior to the 2009-10 season and the first of this academic year.
 
Thomas was also named to the United Soccer Coaches NCAA Division I All-America third team on Thursday night and that on-field honor came exactly one week after he landed on the College Sports Information Directors of America Academic All-America® Division I second team. He will be the only academic All-American on the field in Cary this weekend and is just the third Stanford men's soccer player to collect both All-America and academic All-America honors in the same season along with Andrew Epstein (2016) and Bobby Warshaw (2009).
 
Thomas is 11th in the country in goals against average (0.664) and 16th in solo shutouts (8). In two years as a starter, he has already put together 19 clean sheets, good for fourth in school history. His 0.839 career save percentage leads all active players and his 0.644 career goals against average is second.
 
Thomas made two saves in Friday night's penalty shootout at Clemson, which Stanford won 5-4 to advance to its seventh College Cup. Stanford advanced past Seattle U at home in the second round on penalties, 2-1, when Thomas stopped four RedHawk attempts. Of 11 postseason penalty kicks for Cardinal opponents, each one has been on frame and Thomas has saved six.
 
Thomas missed Stanford's match against UC Irvine on Sept. 9 while he was with the U.S. Under-23 Men's National Team for training camp outside of San Diego. This summer, he was called for a combined preparation camp with players from the United States' Senior and U-23 Men's National Teams from May 26-June 2 in Annapolis, Md. and also participated in a U-23 training camp in Herriman, Utah from June 9-16. Raised in London, he was born in Moscow and holds triple citizenship (United Kingdom, United States, Russia).
 
Thomas has led the Cardinal to its fourth College Cup appearance in five seasons. Stanford will face Georgetown at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, N.C. on Friday in the first national semifinal at 3 p.m. PT/6 p.m. ET on ESPNU.