Men’s soccer nabs five Atlantic 10 honors

The men’s soccer team racked up an impressive list of accomplishments this week, with head coach George Lidster earning the Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year award and senior Yoni Berhanu nabbing the Atlantic 10 Midfielder of the Year.

Berhanu and junior Seth Rudolph were named to the All Atlantic-10 First Team, senior Mike Burke earned A-10 second team honors and freshman Matthew Scott grabbed a slot on the All-Rookie Team.

Lidster, who will retire following the 2011 season, guided the Colonials to a share of their first regular season championship since the 1992 season, picking up 200 career wins along the way. Originally picked to finish 13th of 14 in the A-10, GW went undefeated at home during league play, earning 21 points and a bye in the first round of the championship tournament. This is Lidster’s third Coach of the Year award.

Berhanu, who lead the conference with 10 goals, and Rudolph teamed up to provide a combined league-tying 18 goals this season. This is Berhanu’s second major A-10 award after being named the conference’s Rookie of the Year in 2008. His 10 goals and 23 points this season lead GW this season, and are single-season career highs for the midfielder. Rudolph ranks in the top four in the A-10 with eight goals and 19 points, including five game-winning goals – the most in the league. This is the third end-of-the-season honor for Rudolph, who was an All-Rookie Team pick as a freshman and Second Team All-Atlantic 10 selection as a sophomore.

Burke earned his first career A-10 award after tallying up the most time on the field this season out of all Colonials defenders, logging more than 1,300 minutes. He was a solid presence on a formidable GW backline that posted seven shutouts this season. Scott, a highly-touted recruit coming into the program, played 900 minutes over 11 matches to become the 11th player of Lidster’s career to earn All-Rookie honors.

The Colonials are No. 2 seed for this weekend’s A-10 Championship at St. Louis University’s Robert R. Hermann Stadium, earning a bye through the first round and opening play Friday at 8:30 p.m. against the highest remaining seeded team after Thursday’s quarterfinal action.

Number Crunch: 10

The number of goals netted by men’s soccer senior midfielder Yoni Berhanu this season, the most in the Atlantic 10.