Senior Sean Sendelbach has earned a place on the CoSIDA Academic All-District Team for the second time in his career. Photo courtesy of Laura Westphal - Sport PiX.
St. Peter, Minn. – For the second straight season, Gustavus Adolphus senior men’s soccer player Sean Sendelbach (Sioux Falls, S.D.) has been named to the Academic All-District Men’s Soccer Team for District Six.
The 2013 Capital One Academic All‐District Men’s Soccer Teams, selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America, recognizes the nation’s top student‐athletes for their combined performances athletically and in the classroom.
“Sean has had an unbelievable senior season,” said Head Coach Mike Middleton. “Not only has he led the group with the strength of his personality, but his performances have consistently been close to being the most influential on the field. He has driven the team forward and is the first to make sure everyone is defensively tuned in. It’s very difficult to earn any award as a holding midfield player, but those educated in the game would recognize the importance of his contribution to his team. Simply put, Sean is perhaps our most influential player.”
Sendelbach – a commanding midfielder who plays a key role in operating Gustavus’s possession style system – saved the best season of his collegiate career for his senior year. Starting in all 16 matches and rarely coming off the pitch, Sean has scored a career-best 10 points off of four goals and two assists. He has also scored a pair of game-winning goals coming against Concordia in a 1-0 victory on Sept. 21 and Saint John’s in a 4-0 win on Sept. 28.
The Sioux Falls, S.D. product recently captained the Golden Gusties to a second straight MIAC Championship and a 10-0-0 record in league play. This year’s Gustavus team is just the fifth in the history of the MIAC to win the conference title with an unblemished and perfect record. The 2001 Macalester Scots were the last team to do so, while Gustavus has accomplished this feat once before in 1970.
Mike Middleton says that Sean’s off-the-field qualities are just as important as his attributes on the field. “He chivies the lads along and is their source of inspiration and the person they look to take the group forward,” complimented Middleton. “The fact that he is doing so well in the classroom, and has consistently done so, speaks volumes for him and his family. He is the epitome of the phrase ‘student-athlete.’ His Academic All-District honor is wonderful. In my mind he should get the double – both academic and playing honors. Wouldn’t that be great!”
A three-time Academic All-Conference recipient, Sendelbach is a nursing major with a cumulative grade point average of 3.8.
Over his four-year career, Gustavus has won two MIAC Championships (2012 & 2013) and has compiled an overall record of 52-11-10 and an MIAC mark of 29-5-6. The Gusties have won an impressive 78.1-percent of their matches during Sendelbach’s tenure on the hill.
Sean is one of 12 players on the District Six North Region First Team. Of those 12 honorees, one is a goalkeeper, three are midfielders, five are defenders, and three are forwards. Sendelbach is one of four players on the list who represent the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. Other MIAC players earning the award include Joe Balder of Saint John’s, and Neil Bartholomay and Trent Elmore of Carleton.
Sendelbach captained the Gusties to a second-straight MIAC title this season.
The Gustavus men’s soccer team finished the 2013 regular season with an overall record of 13-2-1. The Gusties secured the No. 1 seed in the MIAC Playoffs and will have home field advantage throughout. Gustavus will open post-season play on Wednesday, Nov. 6 when it hosts Saint John’s University (8-6-3, 6-2-2 MIAC) in the semifinal round.
The Academic All‐District teams include the student‐athletes listed on the following pages and are divided into eight geographic districts across the United States and Canada. This is the second year of the expanded Academic All‐America program as CoSIDA moved from recognizing a University Division (Division I) and a College Division (all non Division I) and has doubled the number of scholar‐athletes honored. The expanded teams include NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II and NCAA Division III participants, while the College Division Academic All‐America Team combines NAIA, Canadian and two‐year schools.
First‐team Academic All‐District honorees advance to the Capital One Academic All‐America Team ballot, where first‐, second‐ and third‐team All‐America honorees will be selected later this month.