Akpan Lauded on Soccer America Preseason All-America First Team

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Harvard senior forward Andre Akpan earned his second preseason All-America nod this season, as he was named to the Soccer America Preseason All-America first team for the third consecutive year Wednesday.

Akpan, who was also honored on the College Soccer News Preseason All-America squad in July, was tabbed as one of 48 players to the Missouri Athletic Club’s Hermann Trophy Watch List by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) for the second straight year earlier this month. He is a two-time semifinalist for the Hermann Trophy, given to the nation’s top collegiate player.

A co-captain of the Crimson this fall, Akpan stands as Harvard’s all-time leading scorer with 97 points and leads all Crimson players with 27 career assists. In 2008, he led the Ivy League with 26 points on 10 goals and six assists and unanimously earned All-Ivy first team, NSCAA All-America and NSCAA All-Northeast Region honors for the third straight year for his effort. A native of Grand Prairie, Texas, Akpan has helped the Crimson reach the NCAA tournament the last three seasons and scored the game-winning goal in double overtime in Harvard’s 1-0 victory at Massachusetts in the first round of the NCAA Championship in 2008.

The National Rookie of the Year by Top Drawer Soccer and Ivy League Rookie of the Year in 2006, Akpan spent this offseason helping the Chicago Fire Player Development League team reach the final of the United Soccer League PDL championship.

Akpan and the Crimson will open the 2009 season by hosting Stony Brook at Ohiri Field Friday, Sept. 4 at 4 p.m.

Photo of Andre Akpan courtesy DSPics.com.