North Carolina junior forward Ben Speas, who scored the winning goal in the NCAA men's soccer national championship game, and Carlos Somoano, who led UNC to the national title in his first year as coach, were named Soccer America's National Player and Coach of the Year, respectively, the publication announced Friday.
The awards are the first national player and coach of the year honors presented by Soccer America to the Tar Heels.
Speas finished the season with seven goals and 10 assists for 24 points. In addition to scoring the only goal in the national championship match against Charlotte, Speas had an assist in the semifinal decision against UCLA and scored the deciding penalty kick to send the Tar Heels to the final. He also had two goals and an assist in the 3-1 win against Boston College in the ACC tournament championship game.
Somoano led Carolina to a 21-2-3 record, the ACC regular-season and tournament titles, the No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, and the national championship. UNC became just the second school to win the ACC regular-season championship, the ACC tournament and the NCAA championship in the same season. The Tar Heels went 13-0-2 at home and 5-1-2 in ACC regular-season play.
Speas was joined on Soccer America's MVPs first team by junior forward Billy Schuler and senior defender Matt Hedges. Duke junior forward Andrew Wenger also was named to the team.
Schuler led the Tar Heels in scoring with 16 goals and 37 points. Hedges headlined a defense that allowed just 18 goals in 26 games and posted shutouts in five of eight postseason games, including the national final.
North Carolina junior defender Enzo Martinez was named to the second team.
A trio of Tar Heels were named to the all-freshman first team: midfielder Mikey Lopez, defenders Jordan McCrary and Boyd Okwounu.
