Akpan Honored on Hermann Trophy Watch List

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Harvard senior forward Andre Akpan has been named to the 2009 Missouri Athletic Club’s Hermann Trophy Watch List, the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) announced Tuesday. Akpan, who is making his second appearance on the watch list, is one of 48 Division I men’s soccer players and the only one from the Ivy League recognized by the NSCAA.

Considered the highest individual honor in intercollegiate soccer, the recipient of the Hermann Trophy is selected by Division I head coaches who are current members of the NSCAA. A list of 15 semifinalists will be selected by a coaches committee in November, with three finalists announced in early December. The finalists will be invited to the Missouri Athletic Club in St. Louis for a news conference on Jan. 8, 2010, where the winner will be announced.

Akpan, a co-captain of the Crimson, was a semifinalist for the Hermann Trophy for the second consecutive season in 2008 after accumulating an Ivy League-best 26 points on 10 goals and six assists. Last fall, he was tabbed unanimously to the All-Ivy League first team and garnered NSCAA All-America honors for the third year in a row. He also grabbed his third straight NSCAA All-Northeast Region first-team nod.

The National Rookie of the Year by Top Drawer Soccer and Ivy League Rookie of the Year in 2006, Akpan ranks as Harvard’s all-time leading scorer with 97 points, having netted 35 goals and handed out 27 assists over the first three years of his career. Akpan’s 27 career assists also stands as a Crimson record, while he appears third on the all-time goal list.

A native of Grand Prairie, Texas, Akpan was also recently named to the College Soccer News Preseason All-America first team for the second time. Akpan and the Crimson open the 2009 season by hosting Stony Brook at Ohiri Field Sept. 4.

Photo courtesy DSPics.com.