KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Oakland men's soccer student-athletes Noah Jensen and Dylan Borczak were two of 44 national men's soccer players named to the United Soccer Coaches 2021 Men's Missouri Athletic Club (MAC) Hermann Trophy Watch List announced by the national office on Thursday. After his historic 2020-21 campaign, Jensen was selected as one of 15 men's soccer national semifinalist for the Hermann Trophy which the highest individual award presented to a player in intercollegiate soccer.
 
The Hermann Trophy, presented annually by the Missouri Athletic Club, is the nation's highest individual honor recognizing the nation's National Player of the Year. Division I coaches who are members of the United Soccer Coaches College Services program vote for the award.
 
Jensen, a three-time team captain at midfield and Courtice, Ontario, Canada native, returns after having one of the most successful seasons in program history. He became the first men's soccer student-athlete in program history to earn United Soccer Coaches NCAA Division I Men's All-America second team honors in the Division I era after leading the nation in assists (14) and assists per game (1.56). Jensen also ranked seventh in the nation while leading the Horizon League in points (22), second in the country in points per game (2.44) and third on the team in goals (4) with three coming off penalty kicks.
 
Additionally, Jensen was named to the United Soccer Coaches All-North Region first team and was named one of 15 men's soccer national semifinalists for the United Soccer Coaches Missouri Athletic Club (MAC) Hermann Trophy, the highest individual award presented to a player in intercollegiate soccer. He also was named 2021 Horizon League Player of the Year and earned All-Horizon League first team honors.
 
Academically, Jensen earned 2020-21 United Soccer Coaches Men's NCAA Division I Scholar All-America first team honors after earning a 3.70 overall GPA and perfect 4.00 GPA last semester while majoring in Actuarial Science. He also garnered 2020-21 United Soccer Coaches NCAA Division I Men's Scholar All-Region honors while garnering Horizon League All-Academic Team honors for the second time in his career.


 
Borczak was named Horizon League Offensive Player of the Year and earned first team honors for the second consecutive season after ranking 22nd in the nation and second in the league in points (18) while ranking 20th in the country and second in the league in goals (9) and sixth in the country in points per game (2.00) at midfield for the Golden Grizzlies. He was also named to the United Soccer Coaches All-North Region first team.
 
The Detroit, Mich. native also knotted three first-half goals to complete the hat trick while adding an assist for a total of seven points to lead Oakland to a dominating 5-0 win over visiting Robert Morris (2/4). For his efforts against RMU, Borczak earned three national Player of the Week honors and four overall. He earned United Soccer Coaches College Player of the Week honors (2/9) and TopDrawerSoccer.com Men's DI Player of the Week accolades and was one of 11 student-athletes named to the TopDrawerSoccer.com Men's DI Team of the Week (2/9). Borczak also earned College Soccer News Men's National Player of the Week honors and was one of 12 student-athletes named to the College Soccer News Men's National Team of the Week (2/8) in addition to being named Nike® Horizon League Offensive Player of the Week (2/5). He was also named Nike® Horizon League Offensive Player of the Week (3/6) for the second time after accounting for five points scoring two goals while assisting on the game-winning goal to lead Oakland to a 3-1 Metro Series win over arch-rival Detroit Mercy (3/5).
 
Selection Process
The process of selecting a winner begins at the start of the college soccer season when a list of potential nominees is compiled by a nominating committee. Near the end of the collegiate regular season, 15 players are named Hermann Trophy semifinalists on Nov. 30 following United Soccer Coaches Division I All-America voting after the regular season. A final round of voting names three finalists on Dec. 15. The 2021 winner is announced on Jan. 7, 2022, in a ceremony at the historic Missouri Athletic Club in St. Louis, Mo.
 
History
In 1967, Robert Hermann, the president of the National Professional Soccer League (NPSL) and the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the NPSL's successor, the North American Soccer League, established a trophy to annually recognize the top men's collegiate soccer player. The trophy, named the Hermann Trophy, has been awarded each year since 1967. In 1988, a second Hermann Trophy was inaugurated to recognize the top women's collegiate player of the year.
 
In 1986, the Missouri Athletic Club began naming an annual player of the year as a rival to the Hermann Trophy. Then in 1996, the NSCAA initiated its own annual player of the year award. These three competing awards began merging three years later when the NSCAA and MAC agreed to cooperate on naming a combined collegiate player of the year. Finally, beginning in 2002, the NSCAA, the Missouri Athletic Club and the Hermann Trophy merged to create a unified award for the top college soccer player of the year. The original Hermann Award Trophy is on display in the Hermann Atrium located in the McDonnell Athletic Center at MICDS in Ladue, Mo.
 

United Soccer Coaches 2021 Men's Hermann Trophy Watch List

Name	Yr.	Pos.	School	Hometown
Victor Bezerra	Jr.	F	Indiana University	Chicago, Ill.
Danny Bloyou	Sr.	F	Penn State University	Accra, Ghana
Noel Caliskan	Jr.	M	Loyola Marymount University	Cologne, Germany
Roman Celentano	Jr.	K	Indiana University	Naperville, Ill.
Luca Dahn	Sr.	D	Seton Hall University	Kahl, Germany
Vitor Dias	Sr.	M	Marshall University	Brasilia, Brazil
Josh Dolling	Grad	M	Missouri State University	Liverpool, England
Spencer Glass	Grad	D	Indiana University	Fort Wayne, Ind.
Bridger Hansen	Grad	D	University of New Hampshire	Cottonwood Heights, Utah
Nick Hazel	Sr.	D	Lafayette College	Roebling, N.J.
Kyle Heibert	Grad	D	Missouri State University	La Salle, Man.
Noah Jensen	Grad	M	Oakland University	Courtice, Ont.
Hugo Kametani	Sr.	F	University of Nebraska-Omaha	Kashima, Japan
Yanis Leerman	Sr.	D	University of Central Florida	Troyes, France
Jasper Löeffelsend	Grad	D	University of Pittsburgh	Cologne, Germany
MD Myers	Jr.	F	High Point University	Delran, N.J.
Alex Nagy	Sr.	M	University Of Vermont	Bow, N.H.
Giannis Nikopolidis	Sr.	K	Georgetown University	Athens, Greece
Valentin Noel	Jr.	F	University of Pittsburgh	Niort, France
Charlie Ostrem	Sr.	D	University of Washington	Shoreline, Wash.
Dante Polvara	Jr.	M	Georgetown University	Las Vegas, Nev.
Justin Rasmussen	Grad	D	Grand Canyon University	Pleasantville, N.Y.
Pierre Reedy	Sr.	M	Penn State University	Kutztown, Pa.
Zach Ryan	Sr.	F	Stanford University	Chatham, N.J.
Lukas Sunesson	Sr.	F	Marquette University	Taby, Sweden
Dylan Teves	Sr	M	University of Washington	Kailua, Hawaii
CJ Tibbling	Sr	F	Seton Hall University	Jarna, Sweden
Fridtjof Andberg	Sr.	D	Long Island University	Lillehammer, Norway
Melker Anshelm	Sr.	D	James Madison University	Stockholm, Sweden
Dylan Borczak	Grad	M	Oakland University	Detroit, Mich.
Sebastian Chalbaud	Sr.	M	High Point University	Valencia, Venezuela
Sofiane Djeffal	Sr.	M	Oregon State University	Nantes, France
Chris Donovan	Sr.	F	Drexel University	Paoli, Pa.
Noah Egan	Jr.	D	University Of Vermont	Irvine, Calif.
Jacob Graiber	Grad	D	University of Illinois-Chicago	Plainfield, Ill.
Paolo Gratton	Sr.	M	University Of Wisconsin-Milwaukee	Madison, Wis.
Billy Hency	Sr.	M	Loyola University Chicago	Fenton, Mo.
Liam Johnson	Sr.	M	University of Denver	Golden, Colo.
Marcos Kitromilides	Sr.	F	Lafayette College	Nicosia, Cyprus
Nico Molina	Grad	F	University of North Carolina-Wilmington	Buenos Aires, Argentina
Frank Momo	Sr.	D	Campbell University	Paris, France
Harald Sollund	Sr.	D	St. Francis College (Brooklyn)	Viken, Norway
George Tasouris	Grad	K	University of Portland	Nicosia, Cyprus
Gino Vivi	Jr.	M	University of Central Florida	San Jose, Costa Rica

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