Ben Sippola, Matt Hedges Cited By Goal.Com

INDIANAPOLIS, IND. -- Butler’s duo of senior Ben Sippola and junior Matt Hedges has been named to the Second Annual Goal.com Team of the Year.  The soccer website chose a first, second and third team from the top players in the nation for its Team of the Year.

Sippola, named the 2010 Horizon League Player of the Year, was one of 11 players picked to Goal.com’s first team.  The Butler scoring leader was joined on the first team by Zac MacMath of Maryland, Kofi Sarkodie of Akron, Goal.com Player of the Year A. J. Soares of Cal, Austin Berry of Louisville, Matt Kassel of Maryland, Michael Farfan of North Carolina, Anthony Ampaipitakwong of Akron, Will Bruin of Indiana, Corey Hertzog of Penn State and Darlington Nagbe of Akron.

Hedges, the two-time Horizon League Defensive Player of the Year, was joined on Goal.com’s second team by David Bingham of Cal, Zarek Valentin of Akron, David Tiemstra of Ohio State, Arthur Ivo of SMU, JC Banks of Green Bay, David Paul of Cal, Jose Gomez of Creighton, CJ Sapong of James Madison, Levi Houapeu of UMBC and Ethan Finlay of Creighton.

The third team was included Josh Ford of UConn, Matheus Braga of Penn State, Danny Barrera of UC Santa Barbara, Darren Amoo of Liberty, Blake Brettschneider of South Carolina, Ryan Finley of Duke, Carlos Alvarez of UConn, Steven Perry of Notre Dame, Ryan Kinne of Monmouth, Soony Saad of Michigan, Colin Rolfe of Louisville, Enzo Martinez of North Carolina, Ian Christianson of Georgetown and Daniel Keat of Dartmouth.

Goal.com’s Coach of the Year was Ken Lolla of Louisville.

The two Butler players helped lead the Bulldogs to a 16-1-3 season, regular season and tournament championships in the Horizon League and a second round berth in the NCAA Men's Soccer Championship.  Butler entered the NCAA Tournament as one of only two unbeaten teams in the nation.