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News Release

Bulls, Houapeu Earn America East Men's Soccer Top Yearly Honors; Paddock, Saunders Named to All-Rookie Team

11/4/2009

Andrew Bulls

Levi Houapeu

Liam Paddock

Phil Saunders

Cambridge, Mass.—Sophomore forward Andrew Bulls (Millersville, Md./McDonogh) and junior midfielder Levi Houapeu (Germantown, Md./Watkins Mill) were named America East Conference Men’s Soccer Striker and Midfielder of the Year respectively in voting done by the league’s eight head coaches.

Both players were also unanimous America East First-Team selections after they each earned the league’s Player of the Week honor on two occasions during the campaign. Freshman defender Liam Paddock (Worcestershire, England) and first-year goalkeeper Phil Saunders (Perry Hall, Md./Perry Hall) were both selected to the league’s All-Rookie Team.

Bulls is UMBC’s first Striker of the Year since the Retrievers joined the conference in the fall of 2003. He currently leads the nation in scoring with 2.35 points per game (40 points/17 games), a position he has held since the first week of NCAA reporting. Eight of Bulls’ 15 goals this season are game-winning scores and the 15 goals scored is tied for the sixth-most in school history and the most since Derek McElligott tallied 15 in 2003.

Houapeu amassed 39 points (14 goals, 11 assists), including five goals and three assists in America East play. He is second in the nation in scoring (2.29 ppg) and second in assists (0.65 per game). Houapeu produced a pair of three-goal games this season in wins over Drexel and Albany and the 11 helpers are tied for the fourth-most in school history.

Former Retriever Matt Watson was the America East Midfielder of the Year in both 2004 and 2005. UMBC has not had two first-team all-conference selections since the 2005 campaign, when Watson and defender Marcus Gross earned top league honors.

Saunders started all 17 games in the nets for UMBC and posted six shutouts in his initial campaign. He was America East’s Rookie-of-the-Week in back-to-back weeks in mid-September. Paddock started all 16 games he participated in, shoring up the middle of the Retriever defense, especially in wins over Boston University and Albany when junior fullback Chris Williams was sidelined with an injury.