Thursday, December 9, 2021

AUSTIN, Texas – Led by an unprecedented fourth selection for Seattle Pacific senior midfielder Travis Swallow, a trio of GNAC players have been named to the College Sports Information Directors of America’s (CoSIDA) Division II Academic All-America Men’s & Women’s Soccer Teams.

Swallow was named to the men’s soccer first team and becomes a rare four-time selection in the program. He was named a Second Team Academic All-American for the 2020-21 and 2019 seasons and was selected to the third team in 2018.

Falcons’ senior forward Sophia Chilczuk was named a Women’s Soccer First Team Academic All-American for the second consecutive year after earning third-team honors in 2018. She is the only GNAC women’s soccer player to have earned three Academic All-America awards and just the second to be named a First Team All-American twice.

Northwest Nazarene senior defender Lorenzo Valentini was named the Men’s Soccer Academic All-America third team for the second consecutive season.

Swallow, who has a 3.94 GPA as a business administration major, was also named United Soccer Coaches First Team All-West Region after helping lead Seattle Pacific to its first GNAC championship and first NCAA Championships berth since 2015. Swallow started all but one match in 2021, finishing the season with five goals and two assists. He registered the game-winning goal in a 2-1 at Hawaii Pacific on September 27 and had a game-tying goal and game-winning goal in a 4-3 win over Simon Fraser on November 4.

Chilczuk, who has a 3.92 GPA as an applied human biology major, was also named a First Team All-American by the United Soccer Coaches and a Third Team All-American by the Division II Conference Commissioners Association. Chilczuk set the GNAC single-season record with Division II leading 17 assists this season to go along with six goals. Chilczuk had the 21st three-assist match in GNAC history at Simon Fraser on October 23 and scored game-winning goals in the season-opening 2-1 win at Chico State on September 11 and in a 3-2 win at Northwest Nazarene on November 6.

Valentini, who has a 3.96 GPA as a graduate student in Northwest Nazarene’s Master’s of Business Administration program, was named Third Team All-West Region by the United Soccer Coaches earlier this month. A two-time First Team All-GNAC selection, Valentini started all 16 matches for the Nighthawks and was on the pitch for all but seven minutes of the season. He scored his only goal of the season in NNU’s 3-0 win at Texas-Permian Basin on September 16.

Nominated and voted upon by members of CoSIDA, nominees for the Academic All-America program must be of sophomore eligibility or greater, must be in their second year at the nominating institution, must be a starter or important reserve for their team and must have a cumulative GPA of 3.30 or greater.