Nichols Named MAC Coach of the Year; Three Falcons Land on All-League First Team

The Mid-American Conference announced the all-conference team and specialty-award winners on Thursday afternoon (April 21), and the MAC champions were well represented.

Eric Nichols has been named the MAC Coach of the Year, and six of his players have earned all-league honors.

Jacob Erlandson, Achille Robin and Chris Sullivan all were named to the All-MAC First Team, while Zach Buescher, Logan Kowalczyk and Nathan Masters were chosen to the all-conference second team.

BGSU's total of six All-MAC Team members is the highest of any conference school. Akron and West Virginia each had five players chosen to the team, while Western Michigan had four and Northern Illinois two. The Falcons and WVU each had three first-team honorees, while NIU and WMU had two apiece and UA one.

Nichols was named the Gary V. Palmisano Coach of the Year for the second time in his BGSU tenure. He also earned the honor in 2016.

Robin is a repeat selection to the All-MAC First Team, having also made the 2019 squad. He becomes the first Falcon to earn all-league first-team honors in back-to-back seasons in over two decades (since Fred Degand in 1999 and 2000).

Sullivan earns all-conference first-team honors after earning second-team accolades in 2019. Buescher has been named to the all-league second team for the second-straight season.

Erlandson, Kowalczyk and Masters each earn all-league honors for the first time in their respective BGSU careers.

The Falcons' total of six All-MAC selections ties the school record. BGSU also had six All-MAC Team members in 2019. Prior to setting a new school record last season, the Falcons had had five All-MAC Team members on five occasions, in 1993 (the first season the MAC sponsored men's soccer), '94, '96, 2014 and 2016. It should be noted that schools were allowed to nominate only five players for the All-MAC voting during the first few seasons of MAC men's soccer.

Nichols guided the 2020(-21) Falcons to the MAC regular-season title and a berth in the NCAA Championships. BGSU has won the MAC's regular-season championship outright for the first time since 1996 and just the second time since the MAC began sponsoring the sport in '93. The Falcons advance to the NCAA Championships for the first time since 1997. Nichols and the Falcons went 5-2-1 in conference play, including a 3-0-1 mark at Cochrane Stadium, and BG now has a record of 25-13-4 over the last 42 matches, dating to late in the 2018 season.

Erlandson, a native of Dayton, Ohio, has contributed at both ends of the pitch this season. In his first year with the Falcons after transferring from Huntington University, he has started all 12 matches and has played all but five of the team's 1,119 total minutes to date. He has helped the Orange and Brown record five shutouts, all in MAC play, and at the other end of the pitch, he is second on the team with three goals and eight points. Those goals include the game-winning tallies in road wins over Dayton (in his BGSU debut) and West Virginia. After the latter match, he was named the Top Drawer Soccer National Player of the Week, becoming the first player in program history to earn that honor.

Robin, a native of Les Sables d'Olonne, France, also has been a key contributor at both ends of the pitch this season. The lone Falcon to play every second of every match this season (and last season as well), he has helped the Falcons keep those five clean sheets from his center-back position. And, at the other end of the pitch, he scored the match-winning goal as BGSU downed Northern Illinois on Sunday (April 18), scoring on a penalty kick in overtime as the Falcons clinched the league title. A team captain, Robin earned honorable mention on the TDS National Team of the Week yesterday (April 20), and last month was named one of just 30 national candidates for the Senior CLASS Award.

Sullivan, from Naperville, Ill., leads the team in goals, assists and points for the second-straight season. A team tri-captain, he has scored 13 points on four goals and five assists to date, meaning that he has been directly involved in the scoring of nine of BGSU's 12 goals this season. He had a goal and two assists in the season opener vs. Dayton, and also found the back of the net against SIUE and in both NIU matches. His goal vs. SIUE was a 'Golden Goal,' while his goal in the first NIU meeting came midway through the second half and also proved to be the GWG in a 1-0 victory. Sullivan, like Robin, was named one of 30 candidates for the Senior CLASS Award, and moved on to be named one of just 10 national finalists for the award. He was the United Soccer Coaches National Player of the Week on Feb. 23, the first Falcon to earn that honor in program history, and has been named MAC Player of the Week twice.

Buescher, a native of Holland, Ohio, has started all 19 matches, and has played roughly 1,067 of the 1,119 total minutes this season to date. A steadying force for the Falcons in the center of the park, Buescher has one assist on the season, and he was on the pitch for all but 32 minutes of the team's eight MAC matches this season. Buescher has started every match since arriving on campus, making 67 starts to date, and he has eight career points on a goal and six assists.

Kowalczyk, who hails from Pinckney, Mich., has a goals-against average of just 0.70 in his first season as a starter. He is 6-4-1 overall, and went 5-2-1 with a GAA of just 0.59 in MAC play. Kowalczyk had a saves percentage of .808 in conference contests, along with five shutouts, for the program's highest total of clean sheets in league play since 1998. He has twice been named MAC Player of the Week, including on Monday (April 19), and on Tuesday he was named to the Top Drawer Soccer National Team of the Week. Kowalczyk has allowed eight goals in 11 matches this season, and three of those eight goals came on penalty kicks.

Masters, from Sylvania, Ohio, has started all 12 matches this season after making one start in his freshman campaign. He scored his first collegiate goal in the Falcons' win over Syracuse, and had an assist on Erlandson's winner in BGSU's victory at West Virginia. The hard-working midfielder has played a total of 972 minutes this season, including 678 of the 759 total minutes in MAC play.

The Falcons will face Monmouth in NCAA Championships first-round action on Thursday, April 29, in Greensboro, N.C., with the winner remaining in Greensboro to take on Pittsburgh, the tourney's number-two overall seed, on Sunday, May 2.

BGSU, as mentioned, is returning to the NCAA Championships for the first time since 1997, and the MAC crown is BG's first outright conference regular-season title since 1996.

For more information on the men's soccer program, follow the Falcons on Twitter (@BGAthletics and @BGSUmenssoccer), Instagram (bgsumenssoccer) and Facebook (BGMensSoccer) as well as on the web right here at BGSUFalcons.com.

2020(-21) ALL-MAC TEAM & SPECIALTY AWARDS
GARY V. PALMISANO MAC COACH OF THE YEAR
Eric Nichols, Bowling Green

MAC PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Nick Markanich, Northern Illinois

MAC FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR
Harry Jolley, Northern Illinois

FIRST TEAM
Diogo Pacheco, Akron
Achille Robin, Bowling Green
Jacob Erlandson, Bowling Green
Chris Sullivan, Bowling Green
Nick Markanich, Northern Illinois
Anthony Markanich, Northern Illinois
Mike Melaragni, Western Michigan
Daniel Nimick, Western Michigan
Steven Tekesky, West Virginia
Luke McCormick, West Virginia
Ike.Swiger, West Virginia

SECOND TEAM
Daniel Strachan, Akron
Carlo Ritaccio, Akron
Will Jackson, Akron
Colin Biros, Akron
Nathan Masters, Bowling Green
Logan Kowalczyk, Bowling Green
Zach Buescher, Bowling Green
Pepe Martinez-Bertrand, Western Michigan
Brennan Creek, Western Michigan
Pau Jumenez Albelda, West Virginia
Kevin Morris, West Virginia

Gallery: (4-22-2021) M.Soccer All-MAC Team - April 22 2021

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