Nov. 10, 2005

The Duquesne University men's soccer team collected 11 Atlantic 10 post-season awards as voted on by the league's coaches. Highlighting the list was junior goalkeeper Zach Varga (Mountville, PA/Hempfield) who was named the Atlantic 10 Defensive Player of the Year. Also receiving top honors were eighth-year head coach Wade Jean who was named Coach of the Year for the second straight year and fourth time in his career after receiving the award in 1999, 2002 and 2004 and junior Noah Salsi (North Huntingdon, PA/Norwin) who was named the Atlantic 10 Student-Athlete of the Year for the second straight year for his successes on the field and in the classroom.

The Dukes had a total of four players named to the All-Conference First Team and four named to the Academic All-Conference Team. Named First Team All-Conference were Varga, seniors Pat Dillon (Langhorne, PA/Holy Ghost Prep) and Steve Mellor (Langhorne, PA/Neshaminy) and sophomore Travis MacKenzie (Carnegie, PA/Chartiers Valley). Salsi, Varga, senior Scott Gibson (Carlin Howe, Redcar (England)/Huntcliff Sec.) and junior Jared Helfrich (Pittsburgh, PA/North Hills) were Academic All-Conference selections.

Duquesne is currently 13-4-0 on the season and is ranked 24th in the nation by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America. The Dukes finished atop the Atlantic 10 regular season standings for the third straight year with a 7-2-0 conference mark. The Red and Blue enter the Atlantic 10 Championship as the two seed with a first round bye and will face the highest remaining seed of Thursday's games on Friday at 5:00 pm cst at Saint Louis.