News

Ander, Gadsby, and Jara named NSCAA All-Americans

Date Posted: 12/8/2015

Kansas City, Mo.----For the first time in Wingate men's soccer history, the Bulldogs had three players named to an All-American team. Sophomore forward Jon Ander (Bilbao, Spain) has been named a second team All-American by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA), while senior midfielder Shaun Gadsby (Newcastle, England) and freshman goalkeeper Pablo Jara (Santiago, Chile) are third team NSCAA All-Americans.

This marks the second consecutive year Wingate has had an All-American. Junior Charlie Machell (Newcastle, England) earned third team All-American accolades from the NSCAA last year. The Bulldogs now have 14 All-Americans in NCAA Division II history. Before Machell, the last Wingate men's soccer All-American was current MLS professional Luke Mulholland, who earned All-American accolades in 2008 and 2009. The last time Wingate had multiple All-Americans was 2004, when Benj Bostic and Thomas Szvetitz were both honored.

"I'm very proud of the team this year," head coach Gary Hamill says. "This adds to the national prominence of our program and our players."

The Bulldogs won their second consecutive regular season SAC title in 2015, while going on to win the SAC Tournament championship for the first time since 2002. It was the first time since 1994 that Wingate won both titles in the same year. The Bulldogs finished 14-4-4 overall, with a 9-2 record in league play. Wingate advanced to the NCAA regional semifinals for the second straight year and third time in four years. The Bulldogs were ranked as high as seventh nationally in 2015.

Ander adds second team All-American honors to an impressive list of accomplishments in his first year at Wingate. The 2015 SAC Player of the Year picked up first team All-SAC honors while also earning a spot on the All-SAC Tournament team. Ander earned first team All-Region accolades from the NSCAA and D2CCA. He finished his sophomore season with 11 goals and four assists, leading the team with 26 points. Ander led the conference in goals, while ranking third in points. Ander had a goal and an assist in the UNC Pembroke win, while notching a hat trick in the Queens victory. He had a goal and an assist at Coker, while netting goals in three consecutive games against Carson-Newman, Catawba and Lenoir-Rhyne. Ander scored a goal against Queens in the SAC Tournament title match.

Gadsby wraps up his illustrious Wingate career by earning All-American honors for the first time. He has earned first team all-conference honors in each of the last three years, while also earning All-Region accolades three consecutive years. Gadsby was named an NSCAA and D2CCA All-Region selection this year. Gadsby finished his final season at Wingate with five goals and eight assists. He ranked fourth in the conference in assists and ninth in points. Gadsby had a pair of assists in the win against Queens, while scoring the lone goal in the 1-0 victory at Newberry. Gadsby scored both goals in the 2-1 win at LMU, while notching a goal and an assist in the Brevard win. Gadsby also had a goal in the Catawba victory, while notching an assist in the 2-0 win against Lenoir-Rhyne in the SAC Tournament quarterfinals.

Jara is the first freshman in program history to earn All-American honors. He filled up the trophy case in his first year at Wingate, picking up SAC Freshman of the Year honors to go along with first team All-SAC accolades. He was also named the SAC Tournament MVP, while earning firs team All-Region honors from the NSCAA and D2CCA. Jara led the league with a 0.79 goals-against average and 10 shutouts, ranking second with a save percentage of .804. He played every minute in goal for the Bulldogs in 2015, piling up 74 saves while allowing only 18 goals in 1,948 minutes of action. Jara notched shutouts in all three SAC Tournament wins, while also leading Wingate past LMU in penalty kicks in the SAC Tournament semifinals, allowing only one goal in PKs. He also helped Wingate advance to the NCAA regional quarterfinals against Lander in penalty kicks. In addition to forcing a Lander miss, Jara converted the clinching penalty kick to send Wingate to the regional semifinals.