Nov. 9, 2000
St. Louis, Mo - On Thursday evening, the Missouri Valley Conference honored four Hilltopper soccer players with all-conference honors on the eve of WKU's first-ever MVC Tournament semifinal match.
Redshirt freshman Daryl Sattler (Cordova, Tenn.) was named to the all-newcomer team after playing the majority of the minutes in goal for WKU. Sattler has recorded 6.5 shutouts on the season, while compiling three straight shutouts in wins over Southwest Missouri State, Bradley and Eastern Illinois.
Stephen Gardner (Louisville, Ky.) was named to the all-MVC second team after a season in which he was the emotional leader for a stiff Hilltopper defense. Gardner, a junior defender, will be a key in stopping the Creighton Blue Jays offensive attack on Friday evening.
Tawanda Chitapa (Bulawayo, Zimbabwe) was also honored on the second team by virtue of his goal and four assits on the season. The Hilltopper's junior co-captain scored his goal on a free kick earlier in the season, while contributing to the offense throughout the year.
Senior Steven Brown (Bowling Green, Ky.) also was named to the second team on Thursday night. Brown has scored 16 goals on the season, including the match-winning goal in all of the Hilltopper victories. Brown also has added four assists for 36 points on the season, a career high. He recorded his first career hat trick in a 4-0 win over Belmont to open the conference season.
"We are the dark horse in the tournament this season," head coach David Holmes said. "This is a fantastic league and we are proud to be here to compete for the league championship. Our seniors are really playing great soccer, and for two of them to be honored tonight shows how hard they have fought hard and working together this season."
First year member, SMU, took most of the awards on the evening after winning the regular season crown in the MVC this season. SMU head coach Schydells Hyndman won the MVC Coach of the Year honors. The league MVP was SMU's senior Diego Walsh.
Friday evening the MVC tournament begins in chilly and windy St. Louis when Bradley and SMU lock heads at 5:30 p.m. (CST). The Hilltoppers face No. 11 Creighton at 8:00 p.m. at the SportPort Complex. The winners of the two semifinal matches will meet for the 2000 Iron Kids Bread Missouri Valley Conference Tournament Championship on Sunday, Nov. 12 at 1:30 p.m. The match will be televised live on Fox Sports Net.
WKU fans can follow the Hilltoppers on the live Internet totalcast by going to http://www.mvc.org and following the links on the page.
