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University of Michigan Athletics

Men's Soccer Big Ten Regular-Seaseon Champs

Season in Review: 2017 Men's Soccer

12/12/2017 3:05:00 PM | Men's Soccer

• Team Captains: Billy Stevens, Ivo Cerda, Robbie Mertz
• Record: 12-6-2 overall, 6-1-1 Big Ten Conference, 2017 Big Ten Regular-Season Champions

The University of Michigan men's soccer team closed out a banner year that featured the school's first Big Ten regular-season championship to go along with a 12-6-2 overall mark, the fourth-most wins in program history.

Men's Soccer

Men's Soccer

Team Highlights

• The Wolverines, needing a win at No. 9 Maryland on Oct. 29 and a tie in the Michigan State vs. Indiana matchup to earn the Big Ten regular-season title, had the most memorable night in program history. Junior Francis Atuahene scored the golden goal in the 104th minute to lift Michigan to its first Big Ten title, defeating No. 9 Maryland, 2-1, in double overtime on a rain-soaked Sunday at Ludwig Field after Michigan State and Indiana played to the needed 1-1 draw earlier in the evening.

• U-M rose as high as No. 10 in the United Soccer Coaches Poll, the highest it had been ranked in the poll since the 2010 season. The Wolverines peaked at No. 12 in the NCAA RPI rankings and No. 8 in the TopDrawerSoccer.com Poll.

• Michigan earned a first-round bye in the 2017 NCAA Tournament after being seeded 13th. The berth was the sixth in school history and the first since 2012. Following the bye, U-M fell to Colgate in the second round of the tournament by a 3-2 count on Nov. 19, in Ann Arbor.

• The Wolverines overcame injuries early in the season to keep their winning ways going, even after using 13 different starting lineup combinations. Junior Robbie Mertz was the lone Wolverine to start all 20 matches and logged a team-leading 1,755 minutes played.

• Michigan outscored teams 32-24 on the campaign, with the goals-for mark ranking No. 6 in program history. The Wolverines also went 9-3-1 at home, equaling the program standard for home wins in a season.

• U-M welcomed two of the largest crowds in the history of U-M Soccer Stadium on the year. In the Sept. 17 matchup against No. 6 Michigan State, a sellout crowd of 2,637 packed the complex, a number that ranks No. 4 in the stadium's history. On Sept. 8, a crowd of 2,134 witnessed a 2-1 win over Wisconsin to mark the seventh-largest turnout.

• Fourteen of the 26 student-athletes on the roster had never taken the field for U-M prior to the start of the season. Of the 10 true freshmen on the roster, seven made their career debuts. Overall, U-M figures to lose only one starter next season in tri-captain Billy Stevens (graduation).

• The Wolverines closed out the season with a 10-1-0 mark when scoring first in a match, 6-1-0 when leading at the half, 11-3-1 against unranked opponents, 9-3-1 when outshooting opponents and 7-3-2 in one-goal matches.

• U-M played the 21st-toughest schedule in the country; the opposition had a collective record of 172-119-43 (58 percent win percentage). The top result on the season came at then-No. 1 Indiana in the form of a 1-1 draw on Sept. 13. The Hoosiers went on to go undefeated in the regular season before falling to Stanford, 1-0, in double overtime of the NCAA Championship match.

Men's Soccer

Men's Soccer

Men's Soccer

Individual Highlights

• Head coach Chaka Daley was named the first Big Ten Coach of the Year in program history after engineering an eight-win turnaround from a season ago.

• Sophomore Jack Hallahan led the team in goals (nine), assists (seven) and points (25) and earned First Team All-Big Ten honors, becoming the 14th player to earn the honor in U-M history. The points mark ties for sixth in the U-M record books. Additionally, a trio of Wolverines in juniors Francis Atuahene, Robbie Mertz, and Marcello Borges were named to the second team, while freshmen Mohammed Zakyi, Marc Ybarra and Umar Farouk Osman garnered places on the Big Ten All-Freshman Team. Additionally, Hallahan and Atuahene (second team) and Mertz (third team) were named All-Midwest Region selections by United Soccer Coaches.

• Junior Ivo Cerda was named a first-team Academic All-America and to the All-District Five team, awards that the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) hands out.

• Juniors Daniel Mukuna and Atuahene were named the Big Ten Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week, respectively, for their performances during the week of Nov. 1, highlighted by a 2-1 double-overtime win at No. 9 Maryland to secure the program's first Big Ten regular-season title. Atuahene earned the second Big Ten weekly honor of his career, as he scored the match-winning goal against both Detroit (Oct. 25) and Maryland (Oct. 29). Mukuna led the U-M defense to a clean sheet over the Titans and scored U-M's first goal against the Terrapins on a header off a corner kick in the seventh minute of action.

Honors and Awards

Daley headshot
Chaka
Daley
Mertz headshot
Robbie
Mertz
Atuahene headshot
Francis
Atuahene
Borges headshot
Marcello
Borges
Hallahan headshot
Jack
Hallahan
Osman headshot
Umar Farouk
Osman
Ybarra headshot
Marc
Ybarra
Ybarra headshot
Mohammed
Zakyi

Team Awards
Team MVP: Jack Hallahan, Robbie Mertz
Michigan Ultras Award: Marcello Borges
Unsung Hero Award: Marc Ybarra
Club Man of the Year: Billy Stevens
Steve Burns Scholar-Athlete Award: Ivo Cerda
Young Player of the Year: Mohammed Zakyi

Conference and National Awards
Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week (Nov. 1): Francis Atuahene
Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week (Nov. 1): Daniel Mukuna
Big Ten Coach of the Year: Chaka Daley
First Team All-Big Ten: Jack Hallahan
Second Team All-Big Ten: Francis Atuahene, Robbie Mertz, Marcello Borges
Big Ten All-Freshman Team: Mohammed Zakyi, Marc Ybarra, Umar Farouk Osman
Big Ten Sportsmanship Award: Tristan Jacob
Big Ten Tournament All-Tournament Team: Ivo Cerda
United Soccer Coaches All-Midwest Region: Jack Hallahan, Francis Atuahene (second team), Robbie Mertz (third team)
CoSIDA Academic All-American: Ivo Cerda
CoSIDA Academic All-District: Ivo Cerda

Academic All-Big Ten
Francis Atuahene, Jr., International Studies
Johann Bittner, Jr., Economics & Political Science
Ivo Cerda, Jr., Cellular & Molecular Biology
Joe Hertgen, So., Business Administration
Noah Kleedtke, Jr., Nuclear Engineering & Radiological Sciences
Robbie Mertz, Jr., Business Administration
Daniel Mukuna, Jr., Economics
Lucas Rosendall, So., Undeclared
Abdou Samake, So., Undeclared
Andrew Verdi, So., Business Administration