Bucknell University Athletics
Three Bison Named to Patriot League All-Academic Men's Soccer Team
11/9/2011 7:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
Nov. 9, 2011
LEWISBURG, Pa. - Three Bucknell men's soccer student-athletes were named to the 11-player Patriot League All-Academic Team on Wednesday. Junior Brendan Burgdorf (Westfield, N.J./Pingry School) and seniors Tommy Caso (Phoenix, Md./McDonogh) and Ryan Sappington (Barboursville, Va./Shattuck-St. Mary's) were all honored less than a week after the same trio garnered Capital One Academic All-District honors.
This is Sappington's second straight appearance on the Patriot League All-Academic Team. He was a key starter on Bucknell's 2009 and 2010 Patriot League championship teams, and he was starting once again this season until being hobbled by a late-season injury. One of the team's most versatile players, Sappington played fullback, outside midfield and defensive midfield during his Bucknell career. He scored three career goals, including a game-winner this year against Saint Francis (Pa.).
Sappington has been just as impressive in the classroom and in the community. He is a philosophy and psychology double-major with a 3.87 cumulative GPA. A Dean's List member every semester so far, Sappington is a member of Psi Chi international honor society for psychology. He was selected for the Bucknell University Student Leadership Institute, and he has worked on two independent research projects in the Department of Psychology, the latest studying the effects of competition on academic integrity.
Sappington is a SAAC member, and he serves on the Communications/Presentations team for Bicycles Against Poverty, a student-run organization that raises awareness and funds to purchase bicycles for internationally displaced persons in Gulu, Uganda and other villages. He is also a member of the Bucknell University Gender Issues Equity Committee, where he has worked with the Department of Athletics in drafting its latest gender equity report.
Caso last week made his third straight appearance on the Academic All-District Team, and he joins Jonathan Hemmert (2002-04) as Bucknell's only three-time honorees. The team's starting goalkeeper throughout most of his four-year career, Caso is tied for third on the program's all-time list with 19 career shutouts. This season, Caso had a 7-5-1 record with five clean sheets and a solid 1.09 goals-against average.
An NSCAA Academic All-East honoree last season, Caso is a mechanical engineering major with a 3.82 cumulative grade-point average and a near-perfect 3.95 GPA within his major. He is a member of the Tau Beta Pi engineering honor society, and he serves as one of the men's soccer representatives on the Bucknell Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. Caso has spent each of the last three summers doing engineering internships in Maryland, with the latest being en engineering and supply chain projects internship with the McCormick Corporation.
Burgdorf is the reigning Patriot League Offensive Player of the Year, and prior to the 2011 season he was named Patriot League Preseason Player of the Year and earned a spot on the MAC Hermann Trophy Watch List. On Tuesday he was named to the All-Patriot League Second Team.
Burgdorf is tied for the Patriot League lead in assists with six, and he also has a pair of goals, coming against nationally ranked Indiana and Notre Dame. In three seasons, Burgdorf now has 17 goals and 10 assists for 44 career points. A physics major with a 3.41 GPA, Burgdorf is perhaps best known for his stellar postseason in 2009, when he scored the goal in a 1-0 win over American in the Patriot League championship match, and then he scored in a 1-0 victory over Princeton in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
The Academic All-Patriot League Team was added for all sports beginning in the 2010-11 season to honor additional student-athletes who excel both on and off the field. The men's soccer team has 11 student-athletes to equal the size of the sport's All-Patriot League first team. Student-athletes must have at least a 3.2 cumulative GPA and be a starter or a key reserve. Award winners are determined by a vote of the league's sports information directors, who cannot vote for their own student-athletes.
Bucknell and American led the league with three selections this year.
After winning the 2009 and 2010 Patriot League championships, Bucknell finished the 2011 campaign with a 7-9-2 record.
Patriot League Men's Soccer Scholar-Athlete of the Year
Matt Makowski, Sr., American
Academic All-Patriot League Team in Men's Soccer
Matt Makowski, American, Sr.
Michael Roberts, American, Sr.
Colin Seigfreid, American, So.
Tanner Robertson, Army, Sr.
Mitch Johnson, Army, Jr.
Tommy Caso, Bucknell, Sr.
Ryan Sappington, Bucknell, Sr.
Brendan Burgdorf, Bucknell, Jr.
Graham Heydt, Lafayette, Sr.
Blake Fink, Lafayette, Jr.
Sam Miller, Navy, Sr.
