Kansas City, MO – The National Soccer Coaches Association of American (NSCAA) announced today that Messiah College senior
Jacob Bender was selected as the NCAA Division III National Player of the Year. The honor for caps an impressive senior season for the Falcons' midfielder that included being named both First Team All-Mid-Atlantic Region and First Team All-American.
"Jacob has always been a talented player," Messiah head coach
Brad McCarty said of the star midfielder, who was also named MAC Commonwealth Offensive Player of the Year this season. "He's been a starter for us since he was a sophomore, but the impact he had on this program—both on and off the field—was taken to a high level this season. He was not only our best player, but also our hardest working player, and when you combine those two things with how much he cares about his teammates, then you have a great player."
Bender was certainly the complete and talented player on team for each of the past two seasons, and this year he became arguably the most capable and skilled two-way player in the nation. But his rise to Player of the Year status was not due to eye-catching statistics; rather, the honor for Bender no doubt comes in recognition of his extraordinary ability to impact seemingly every moment of a game.
"I thoughT Jacob was one of our best players in 2015 and, even though he was an All-American, he was our starting right back," McCarty said, commenting on Bender's development into a nationally-renowned competitor. "When we moved him to holding central midfielder this season I wasn't entirely sure how he would handle the adjustment. But in the end, it was a great decision and there were times when he pulled the strings and controlled the game more than any other player in the recent history of our program."
McCarty continued: "There were times that Jacob had a significant impact on the game through his 'area of influence' meaning he would move backward, forward, and sideways however much he needed to control the game. There were times he connected 50, 60, and even 70 or more passes in a game, which is what made him so great in our system.
"He just had so much of the ball for us, and in addition to his fitness, ability to cover ground, and distribution, he also found ways to creating scoring opportunities for himself. Often times if you are playing that far from the goal it's difficult to have a hand in as many goals as Jacob did this year."
To McCarty's points, Bender connected 61, 68, and 76 passes for the Falcons in their three NCAA Tournament games, something that helped Messiah get into the Sectional Semifinal after missing the NCAAs last year. He also collected a goal or an assist in each of Messiah's five postseason games within the MAC Commonwealth Tournament and the NCAA Tournament. Overall, Bender finished with a team-best 34 points by way of 13 goals and eight assists. He also collected five game-winners.
"We were really young last year (in 2015), and we struggled early to close out games," McCarty said. "I thought we continued to improve as the year went on and were playing well by the end of the season. Although we didn't get into the NCAAs, a foundation was built that prepared us for this fall.
"Our seniors did a great job this season bringing a level of intensity to every practice, and that allowed us to hit the ground running at the beginning of the year. After making some lineup adjustments throughout the regular-season, we were able to raise our level of play at the end. When I went back and watched our (Sectional Semifinal) game with Calvin, I thought we played great. It looked like Messiah soccer."
Bender is the ninth Messiah player in the past 15 seasons to earn the National Player of the Year honor, and he's the first to do so since Jeremy Payne collected his second such honor in 2014.
