Bradley, Armstrong Claim 2010 NSCAA All-America Honors

KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Senior defender Lisa Bradley of the national runner-up No. 2 UC San Diego women’s soccer team earned 2010 NSCAA/Performance Subaru Division II All-America First Team honors in a National Soccer Coaches Association of America announcement Thursday. Junior goalkeeper Kristin Armstrong was an All-America Second Team selection.

College coaches from NCAA Division II schools selected the three NSCAA All-America teams, beginning at the regional level with all first team all-region picks advancing to the national ballot. Bradley and Armstrong were named to the All-West Region First Team earlier in the year.

Bradley, a team captain, started all 25 matches for a Triton squad that went 19-3-3 overall in 2010, its best mark since going 20-2-2 in 2006. She led a back line that topped the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) in goals against average (.62) and shutouts (16). She scored twice, added two assists and logged 2,171 minutes in 2010- fifth most on the team. Bradley also earned NSCAA First Team honors in 2009.

Since UCSD moved to Division II in 2001, only three Tritons have been named All-America First Team.

Armstrong posted four shutouts in the Tritons’ NCAA Tournament run to the national championship match, boasting a CCAA-best .63 goals against average along the way. She started 24 of UCSD’s 25 matches on the year and also led the CCAA with 15 shutouts. She held opponents scoreless for 450 consecutive minutes over six NCAA Tournament matches.

Bradley and Armstrong, along with teammate Annette Ilg, were named to the 2010 NCAA All-Tournament Team on December 4. The accolades increase UCSD’s postseason award total to 15.

13 members of teams UCSD faced in the 2010 NCAA Tournament and one fellow CCAA player joined Bradley and Armstrong as being named All-America. National Semifinal foe, No. 1 Saint Rose, placed three players on the NSCAA All-America First Team. No. 5 Grand Valley State, to whom UCSD fell in the national championship, had two players named to the first team.

After starting the year 2-2-2, UCSD remained unbeaten in 18 of its last 20 contests, defeating five NCAA Tournament opponents before falling to GVSU in the snow, 4-0, in the national championship game on December 4 at Owsley B. Frazier Stadium on the campus of Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky. The Tritons finished 19-3-3 in 2010, venturing the farthest they had gone in the NCAA Tournament since taking home the national championship in 2001.

--www.ucsdtritons.com