FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dec. 21, 2005

Four Lions earn SSC academic honors

Four members of the Missouri Southern State University men's soccer team earned Southwest Soccer Conference academic honors for 2005.

Senior J.P. West (Broken Arrow, Okla.) was named to the SSC All-Academic Team, while sophomores Dushan Gorechan (Wichita, Kan.), Ryan Morris (Topeka, Kan.) and Neil Stoessel (Papillion, Neb.) were named to the SSC Commissioner's Academic Honor Roll.

West is a marketing major and has maintained a 3.3 grade point average. He started all 19 matches in 2005 for the Lions and notched a team-leading 39 shot attempts. West scored three goals, with one assist in his final season with MSSU. He scored the eventual game-winning goal in a 3-0 upset victory over then-SSC leading West Texas A&M on Oct. 23.

It marked the second straight SSC All-Academic Team honor for West, who finished his career with 10 goals and four assists for 24 points. He played in 69 career matches with the Lions, starting 61 times.

Gorechan, a business major with a 3.3 GPA, saw action in 18 matches and finished tied for second on the team with three goals.

Morris is a 3.6 biology major who played in 18 matches this season with 13 starting assignments. Morris was a valuable piece of a Lions defense that posted four shutouts on the season.

Stoessel, a 3.4 undeclared major, started all 17 matches in which he played and netted two goals with one assist. One of Stoessel's scores was the winning tally in a 1-0 overtime triumph at Eastern New Mexico on Sept. 23.

The Lions, under third-year head coach Kiley Cirillo, more than doubled their win total from 2004 and finished with an overall record of 5-13, with a 3-11 mark in the SSC.