Five Lyons earn NEWMAC men's soccer all-conference honors

November 7, 2006

WORCESTER, MA- Five Wheaton College men's soccer players were voted to the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) All-Conference teams Tuesday at the postseason meeting held at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). Four Lyons earned first-team accolades for the second time in the five years the NEWMAC has awarded a first and a second team.

A trio of seniors from the NEWMAC regular season and tournament champion corralled first-team nods, with keeper Matt Pachniuk (Newtown, CT/Newtown) drawing a conference citation for the third straight year, and Cameron Habib (Norfolk, MA/Bridgton Academy) and Ariel Tatum (Cayman Islands, BWI/Holderness School) receiving their first league recognitions. Sophomore Dan Lane (Dedham, MA/Worcester Academy), the 2005 NEWMAC Rookie of the Year, was on the first team for the second consecutive year. Junior Trevor Cote (Portsmouth, RI/Providence Country Day School) garnered a second-team accolade for the second straight fall.

Lane has been Wheaton's go-to striker this year after breaking school marks for goals and points by a freshman in 2005. He has 10 goals and 23 points, each good for second in the NEWMAC. Lane contributed to eight of nine Lyon tallies during one stretch, which included playing a hand in all five of Wheaton's goals during a three-game span. Lane has four game-winners, including a pair in overtime, and he has played a role in 11 goals that have either put his team in front or tied the game. Lane is ninth at Wheaton with 23 career goals.

Pachniuk, the program's career leader with 54 wins and 29 shutouts, extended his career-high save total to 82 over the weekend, and he sits second in the league with 4.56 stops per game. He is also third in each save percentage (.820) and winning percentage (.676), having gone 10-4-3 with six shutouts while posting a 1.01 goals against average. With 288 career saves, he needs seven to tie for second in program history.

Since moving from the midfield into the backfield during the course of the season, Tatum has helped anchor a defense that allows just over a goal per game. He has appeared in all 20 games and drawn 18 starts, sits one point shy of his career high of 10 and has matched his personal best with three goals. He assisted a pair of game-winning goals and posted points in four of Wheaton's last eight games.

As one of only two players to have started each of Wheaton's 20 games, Habib has tallied a career-high 10 points from his midfield position. He is tied with Tatum for second on the team in assists (4) and third in goals (3) and twice assisted Wheaton's game-winning tallies. He also posted two goals in a one-goal win over Worcester State College and added a goal and an assist during a tie with Brandeis University.

Cote has been a solid presence at midfield, starting all 19 games in which he appeared. He came up big during last weekend's NEWMAC Tournament, providing the winning goal during the Lyons' penalty-kick shootout triumph in the semifinals and, after scoring once in 18 previous contests this season, netting his first career game-winner for the only goal in the title game. Cote also scored during a 3-2 conference win over United States Coast Guard Academy and assisted on the double-overtime game-winner at nationally-ranked Keene State College.

At 12-4-4 overall, the Lyons have drawn a bid to the NCAA Tournament for the fourth consecutive season, the sixth time in seven years and the seventh time overall. Wheaton will travel to Amherst College this weekend to take on Western New England College in the first round on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. A victory would propel the Lyons into the tournament's second round on Sunday at 1:00 p.m.

This page is maintained by Scott Dietz. Last updated on 11/7/06.
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