EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WFIE) – Two 2024 Missouri Valley Champion University of Evansville men’s soccer team members were named to the MVC Scholar-Athlete Team.
Junior defender Nacho Diaz-Caneja (Coruña, Spain) and sophomore winger Auden Engen Vik (Trondheim, Norway) were named to the MVC Scholar-Athlete teams on Tuesday morning. Diaz-Caneja was named to the first team while Engen Vik was named to the second team by a vote of league sports information contacts.Diaz-Caneja appeared in all 21 matches for the Purple Aces starting in 19 in 2024 while averaging over 70 minutes a match. He scored two goals for UE during 2024 including the game-winning goal at Memphis on Aug. 25. Diaz-Caneja also recorded an assist in Evansville’s first match of the year against Bellarmine. Offensively he took 14 shots with three landing on goal in nine matches and had a career-high three shots at Western Michigan and Bradley. Diaz-Caneja has one of the highest GPA’s on the team at 3.97 as a business major and has been on the Dean’s List every semester at UE.
Engen Vik also appeared in all 21 matches for the Aces with 15 starts to average 43 minutes a match. The winger scored his lone goal of the season at NIU on Oct. 10 to win the match for UE in the 85th minute. Engen Vik assisted on two goals at Louisville and Western Michigan in the MVC Tournament for four points on the season. On the pitch, he took eight shots with four landing on goal in five matches, and had the fifth-best shot accuracy for Evansville at 50%. Engen Vik had a career-high in shots with three against USI to win the Mayor’s Cup on Sept. 1. The sophomore has a 3.86 GPA majoring in business and has been named to UE’s Deans List twice.
Bowling Green and Missouri State had the most athletes named to the MVC Scholar-Athlete teams with five each. Western Michigan forward Noah James was named the Scholar-Athlete of the Year with a personal best seven goals and three assists in 2024 while having a 4.0 GPA studying pre-mechanical engineering as a sophomore. The criteria to make the MVC Scholar-Athlete teams mirrors the College Sports Communicator (CSC) standards for Academic All-America voting. Nominees must be starters or important reserves with at least a 3.50 cumulative grade point average (on a 4.0 scale) and they must have reached sophomore athletic and academic standing at their institution.
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