Five Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association men's soccer players gathered Google Cloud Academic All-America® honors Tuesday (Dec. 4), setting an MIAA record for most MIAA men's soccer players to be honored by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).
Calvin's Jacob Witte, a senior midfielder, received First Team Academic All-America® honors for the second consecutive season. Joining Witte on the First Team was teammate and junior forward Ian Adams.
Second Team Academic All-Americans® included Calvin's senior defender Trent Vegter and Hope's junior forward Logan Bylsma. Adrian's Tad Davis, a senior midfielder, was a Third Team Academic All-American® selection.
Since the 2001-02 academic year, when CoSIDA expanded its award program to include an Academic All-America® team for men's soccer, the most MIAA men's soccer players to gain academic honors from the national organization were two in the 2003-04 academic year.
Adams, a computer science / mathematics major with a 3.96 grade-point average, finished the 2018 campaign with 30 points on six goals and a Calvin-record 18 assists. Adams ended the season named to the NCAA Division III Finals All-Tournament team.
Witte had a team-best five game-winning goals this fall, finishing the year with 17 goals and eight assists to aid the Knights in recording a 22-2-0 record. In the classroom, Witte owns a 3.86 grade-point average in speech pathology.
Bylsma, an accounting major with a 3.60 grade-point average, led the Flying Dutchmen in goal scoring this season with 14 in 18 matches. He contributed seven game-winning goals as Hope finished with a 14-3-1 overall record.
Vetger, the MIAA Most Valuable Player and United Soccer Coaches First Team All-America for the third consecutive season, was a key factor in Calvin posting a 0.59 goals-against average through 24 games in 2018. Academically, Vegter owns a 3.46 grade-point average in civil engineering.
Davis has a 3.93 grade-point average in business administration and was Adrian's team leader in points in 2018 with five goals, three assists, and 13 points; Davis aided Adrian in posting a 8-8-1 record and an appearance in the MIAA Tournament title game.
The Division III Google Cloud Academic All-America® program is financially supported by the NCAA Division III national governance structure to assist CoSIDA with handling the awards fulfillment aspects for the 2018-19 Division III Academic All-America® teams. Student-athletes must have sophomore academic standing at their institutions and have a cumulative grade-point average at 3.30 or higher and been a First-Team Academic All-District® selection to move onto the national ballot.
2018 Google Cloud Academic All-America® as Selected by CoSIDA soccer teams - NCAA Division III (pdf)
MIAA Student-Athletes Honored by CoSIDA
Adrian: Tad Davis (3rd) - Adrian story link
Calvin: Jacob Witte (1st), Ian Adams (1st), Trent Vegter (2nd) - Calvin story link
Hope: Logan Bylsma (2nd) - Hope story link
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