RICHARDSON, Texas – The St. Mary's University Men's Soccer team was well represented on the Lone Star All-Conference teams announced Tuesday by the league office. The Rattlers had eight student-athletes recognized on the four teams, as well as the Freshman of the Year in goalkeeper Nichita Misac.
 
Misac, from Lisbon, Portugal, earned the league's top award for a freshman and was also selected to the All-Freshman and Third-Team All-Conference teams. He has 11 wins in goal, which ties for the second-most in a season in St. Mary's history and is one off the record of 12 by Johnny Thurbin from 2024. He also has six shutouts, which moves him into sixth on the single-season chart and second among StMU freshmen. The record for shutouts by a first-year is seven by Ray Macias in 1981.
 
Despite finishing third in the conference standings, the Rattlers had no one selected to the First-Team, as StMU has used a balanced style of play all season.
 
Earning Second Team honors are seniors Pape Gueye (Dakar, Senegal) as a defender, sophomore midfielder Kai Louviere (Hondo, Texas) and sophomore forward Sebastian Poblete (Veracruz, Mexico).
 
Gueye has anchored the defense all season on a team that allows only 0.83 goals per game. He has started all 18 games and has played all 90 minutes in 11 straight contests and in 14 of the 18. Louviere is second on the team with 17 points, scoring six goals and adding five assists, including one on the game winner against DBU in the Lone Star Quarterfinals on Sunday. Poblete leads the team with 19 points, scoring eight goals and chipping in three assists. Twenty of his 36 shots are on goal (55.6 percent) and he's kicked four game winners.
 
Joining Misac on the Third Team is senior captain Ricky Alvarez (Dripping Springs, Texas). Alvarez has also started all 18 games, scoring two goals and he is tied with Louviere for the team lead in assists with five.
 
Lewis Boney (Leeds, Yorkshire, England), Mekhi Carwise (Nolanville, Texas), Eduardo Fernandez (San Antonio) and Misac highlight the amazing talents of the Rattlers' freshman class as all four were named to the All-Freshman Team.
 
Boney has seven points as a defender, scoring twice with three assists, while Carwise has two goals and an assist for five points and Fernandez, who redshirted his first year at UIW before the eligibility rule change, is third on the club with 14 points, scoring six times and adding two assists. Carwise and Fernandez also each have a game-winning goal to their credit.
 
LSC Champions Midwestern State swept the remaining special awards as senior Parker Plaxco won both Player and Forward of the Year, Junior Ethan Krchnak was named LSC Defensive Player of the Year, junior Jake Morris was voted LSC Goalkeeper of the Year and senior Alan Rivera earned the title of LSC Midfielder of the Year. Oklahoma Christian's Dante Caffaro won Newcomer of the Year and the Eagles were named to the coaching staff of the year.
 
The Rattlers will face Oklahoma Christian in the semifinals of the LSC Tournament on Wednesday at 7 p.m. in Lawton. OC received a bye in the first round, while the Rattlers defeated DBU 1-0.