LAS VEGAS – Putting a bow on one of the best regular seasons in program history, San José State's Max Allen, Rudi Castro, Willy Miranda, Joel Garcia, Carlos Gomez-Zavala, Kasper Poulsgaard and David Sweeney have all received All-WAC honors.
The awards were announced by the league on Monday afternoon. The all-conference teams were selected by a survey of the league's 12 head coaches.
"This is great recognition for these individuals despite the challenges of this somewhat truncated season," says head coach Simon Tobin. "We consider all of our individual accolades to be team awards as well and I thought every member of our team had a tremendous conference season."
The program's seven honorees is the most for SJSU since the 2005 team had 10 student-athletes make the MPSF all-conference teams. In addition, this marks the first time since 2015 (Rory Knibbs and Jonathan Colunga) that multiple Spartans received first-team recognition.
San José State has had at least one student-athlete receive first-team all-conference honors for three straight seasons now, a first for the program since the 2010-2012 campaigns.
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— San José State Men's Soccer (@SanJoseStateMS) April 12, 2021
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Allen, a midfielder from Liverpool, England, controlled the center of the pitch all season for the Spartans and received first-team honors. He started each of the five matches he appeared in, racking up 464 minutes of play by the end of the regular season. The senior finished conference play as one of the nation's top passers, tallying four assists in those five matches. Allen has now received All-WAC honors in each of his first four seasons with the Spartans.
Rounding out SJSU's representatives on the all-conference's first-team is Castro. Also one of the nation's top passers, the forward is ranked No. 2 nationally with 10 assists on the season. In his second season with program, Castro has also earned All-WAC recognition in each of his seasons in a Spartan kit.
Earning second-team honors in his senior season is Miranda. The midfielder finished the regular season ranked No. 5 in the WAC in goals (4) and points (10) and was 10th in shots attempted (21).
Defender Joel Garcia was named to the WAC All-Freshman team after a dominant debut campaign for the Salinas, Calif. native. Garcia was pivotal to the Spartan back line all season and made seven regular season appearances in his first season on campus.
Senior Carlos Gomez-Zavala and sophomores Kasper Poulsgaard and David Sweeney all received honorable mention All-WAC honors. Gomez-Zavala ranked second in the WAC in assists (4) while Poulsgaard and Sweeney led one of the league's strongest defenses from their defender and goalkeeper positions, respectively.
Led by head coach Simon Tobin, SJSU finished the regular season with four consecutive victories and a 5-1-2 record.
The club now sets its sights on postseason play as Tobin's team returns to the WAC Tournament for a fourth straight season. San José State will kickoff its postseason run on Tuesday, meeting Air Force in the quarterfinals at 2:30 p.m.