“We are so happy for both Kevan and Warren,” Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ head coach Bryan Cunningham said. “This is a great achievement for both of them and also a great accomplishment for our program.”

Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ was one of just 10 schools nationally to have more than one player selected Thursday.

Creavalle and George were both selected to the All-Conference USA First Team this past season when they helped the Knights advance to the second round of the NCAA Championship for the second-consecutive year. Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ was ranked in the top-25 nationally for nearly the entire campaign, and moved to as high as No. 6.

George had a pair of goals and seven assists this past year, when he started all 21 contests for the Knights. During his four-year career, he started all 73 matches and recorded six goals and 16 assists, which ranks 10th in program history. A native of Trinidad, George was a three-time All-C-USA First Team selection.

“Kevan is a great kid. He has done so much for the program. He came to Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ as one of the top recruits in the country when I took over as the head coach. He played in three Conference USA Championship semifinals, two NCAA Tournaments and made it to the second round two-straight years. Every year as a player and a person, he improved,” Cunningham said.

“It was an unreal feeling to see my name on the screen,” George said of his selection. “I’ve had so many ups and downs in my life, but I stuck to my goal to play professionally. It is a rewarding feeling to get drafted by such a wonderful organization like the Columbus Crew.”

In 2011, Creavalle appeared in 17 contests, making 16 starts. He recorded one goal and three assists during the year. Prior to the campaign, the Georgia native was named to the MAC Hermann Trophy Watch List. After his junior season, when he tallied four goals and 12 assists, Creavalle garnered NSCAA All-America Third Team honors. He spent two years at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ after transferring from Furman.

“We were very blessed to have Warren join us two years ago,” Cunningham said. “He was still very raw, but he bought into our system of what we do here. He worked extremely hard on his game. He is a very coachable young man. Warren is the consummate team player.”

“This is what I have been working toward for the majority of my life,” Creavalle said. “I am real excited to get to this point and I am really excited to keep working harder.”

George and Creavalle became the second and third players in program history to be selected in the MLS SuperDraft. In 2010, goalkeeper Sean Johnson was tabbed with the 51st overall pick by the Chicago Fire.

The match, which featured a 70-minute lightning and rain delay, ended when Creavalle knocked the ball into the left corner of the goal after securing a corner kick from junior Nik Robson (Auckland, New Zealand). The Knights went down 1-0 early, but played with more energy following the weather delay.

“I’m so proud of my team tonight,” Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ head coach Bryan Cunningham said. “I don’t know who we were in the first 30 minutes of that game, but we came out after the rain delay a totally different team. I challenged them to be the team that we are capable of being.”

Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ tied the match at 1-1 at the 38:24 mark when sophomore McKauly Tulloch (Kingston, Jamaica) slipped past the lone defender back for the Wildcats and scored past Tyler Beadle. Creavalle and senior Kevan George (Roxborough, Trinidad) assisted on the goal, which was the 10th of the season for Tulloch, who leads the nation in points per game.

Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ finished with a 19-12 shot advantage and took eight corner kicks during the match. Kentucky entered the contest tied for first in the nation with 25 total goals, but the Wildcats’ scoring opportunities were limited by Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½’s defense.

Kentucky grabbed a 1-0 lead 13 minutes into the opening half when Tyler Riggs tapped the ball into the open goal after Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½’s goalkeeper, junior Shawn Doyle (Fort Myers, Fla.), slipped on the wet field.

The contest was the first of eight league matches this year for the Knights.

“It’s huge,” Creavalle said of starting off C-USA play with a victory. “We started off with a win like that last year and it really set us up for the rest of the season.”

Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ had several good scoring opportunities late in the match, and almost ended the contest in regulation when senior Cameron Cooksey (Marietta, Ga.) found sophomore Steven Lamberta (Temecula Valley, Calif.) in the box for a header that went just left of the goal with two minutes to play. Tulloch setup Creavalle with a great pass with seven minutes to go, but the senior was whistled for offsides before he booted the ball into the goal past Beadle.

The physical contest featured 38 total fouls and three yellow cards.

Tulloch attempted six shots in the winning effort, and Creavalle had three shots. Doyle recorded four saves as he picked up his sixth win of the year.

Last week, Creavalle became the first player in program history to be named to the NSCAA/Performance Subaru All-South Region First Team for his play in 2010.

Junior Kevan George (Roxborough, Trinidad) and sophomore Nik Robson (Auckland, New Zealand) joined Creavalle when they both earned All-South Region Third Team honors, marking the first time that Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ has had three players selected by the NSCAA for its regional team.

Creavalle is just one of two players from Conference USA to be named to the NSCAA All-American Teams. Joining Creavalle from C-USA is SMU’s Arthur Ivo, who was named to the second team.

Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½’s junior midfielder finished the season with four goals and four assists for eight points, putting himself on a list as one of the best at his position in the country. In all, he was honored as the first-ever Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ player named an All-American and the first named to the NSCAA All-South Region First Team, to go along with his spot on the All-Conference USA First Team.

Senior captain Yaron Bacher (Atlanta, Ga.) was honored with a spot on the second team and goalkeeper Shawn Doyle (Ft. Myers, Fla.) was selected to the third team. Steven Lamberta (Temecula, Calif.) was also honored with a spot on the C-USA All-Freshman Team.

Tulsa was the other program to have three members selected to the 11-member All-Conference First Team. Robson, the league’s leading scorer, was selected to the first team one season after being named to the third and the all-freshman teams in 2009. Robson scored eight goals and had nine assists in his second year with the Knights to lead all of C-USA with 25 points.

For the third-straight season, George earned a spot on an all-conference team. As a freshman, George was selected to the First Team before being named to the Second Team as a sophomore last year. In 2010, George earns a spot on the First Team with his stellar play in the midfield as he finished tied for fourth on the team with four assists.

Creavalle rounds out the trio of Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ players on the All-Conference First Team. The third-year midfielder tied for fourth on the team in scoring with 11 points on four goals and three assists and helped the Knights to their best season since joining the conference in 2005.

Bacher was named to the All-Conference Second Team for the second-consecutive season. Bacher, a senior captain, has been an anchor on the Knights’ defense that allowed a league-low 13 goals in 2010. Besides being a defensive mainstay for Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½, Bacher was third on the team with five assists, while adding a goal in the season opener against Jacksonville on Sept. 1.

Doyle, a sophomore goalkeeper, was a major reason for Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½’s success in 2010, posting the league’s top save percentage (.814) and goals-against average (0.73) to earn a spot on the All-C-USA Third Team. His seven shutouts were also tied for the most by any keeper in the conference this season.

Finally, Lamberta was recognized as one of the league’s top young players with a spot on the C-USA All-Freshman Team. He earned the distinction with strong play in the midfield during his first season with the Knights. Lamberta joins Robson (2009) and George (2008) as the only current members of Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ to have been named to the All-Freshman Team during their careers.

Blake Brettschneider of South Carolina and Arthur Ivo of SMU were named the Co-Offensive and Co-Most Valuable Players of the Year. Goalkeeper Daniel Withrow of Marshall was named the Defensive Player of the Year, while SMU’s Juan Castillo was named the Freshman of the Year. SMU’s Tim McClements was named the Coach of the Year for leading his team to a 15-1 mark overall and 7-1 in league play. The only loss of the season for the Mustangs came at the Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ Soccer Complex, 2-1, on Oct. 2.

The Knights will begin play in the 2010 C-USA Tournament at Memphis’ Mike Rose Soccer Complex on Friday at 8:30 p.m. in the second semifinal of the day. Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ earned the No. 2 seed and a bye into the semifinals and will play the winner Wednesday’s game between Kentucky and Tulsa.

The No. 22 Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ men’s soccer team (9-2-2) scored three first-half goals to defeat Virginia Tech (4-9-1) Tuesday afternoon at Thompson Field, 4-2. The Knights and Hokies played an intense first 20 minutes as the teams combined to score three goals in that time. Sophomore Eduardo Jimenez (San Juan, Puerto Rico) scored the eventual game-winner when he found the back of the net in the 40th minute to lift the Knights to the nonconference win.

“Give the team a lot of credit as it has been a tough week of travel for us,” head coach Bryan Cunningham said. “Virginia Tech was a very resilient team, but we were able to put four goals in today that helped us to get the win.”

Junior Warren Creavalle (Acworth, Ga.) put Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ up 1-0 in just the eighth minute of the game. Sophomore Nik Robson (Auckland, New Zealand) picked up an assist on the opening tally as he fed Creavalle for the open look inside the box. The goal was Creavalle’s third in the last four contests.

Former Hokie Luiz Yamashita (Sao Paulo, Brazil) gave his current team a 2-0 lead with his third goal of the season just over five minutes later. Yamashita, who transferred to Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ from Virginia Tech following the 2008 season, put a shot inside the far post from the left side of the 18-yard box. Junior captain Kevan George (Roxborough, Trinidad) picked up his second assist of the season on the marker.

“I could tell this was going to be a special day for Luiz, you could see it in his eyes this morning,” Cunningham said. “I told my assistant coaches that I thought he was going to score a goal today and he came through. Luiz created some good chances for his teammates as well and was just very effective throughout the entire game.”

Virginia Tech answered back with its first goal in the 19th minute to cut the lead in half. Evan Slusser headed in his first tally of the year on Clarke Bentley’s corner kick to make it 2-1 in the early going.

Jimenez scored the final tally of the opening period to give his team a little breathing room headed into the half. The second-year midfielder put a shot from the top of the box that beat James Daly in goal for the Hokies to give the Knights a 3-1 lead at the break. The goal was the second of the season and Jimenez’s career.

The scoring didn’t stop in the second half; it just took a little bit longer for either team to find the back of the net like they had early in the first.

Sophomore forward A.J. Nelson (Ponte Vedra, Fla.) scored his third of the season in the 68th minute to give his team the three-goal cushion, 4-1. Freshman Steven Lamberta (Temecula, Fla.) picked up his first-career point, assisting on the goal.

A Jed Prater tally in the 72nd minute cut the lead to 4-2, but that was as close as the Hokies would get as Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ held on for the two-goal victory.

Sophomore Shawn Doyle (Ft. Myers, Fla.) stopped three shots en route to earning his ninth win of the season. The nine victories are the most by any goalkeeper at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ since the program joined Conference USA in 2005.

The Hokies held a substantial advantage in corner kicks in the contest. Virginia Tech was awarded the corner 11 times in the game, while Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ managed just three opportunities.

The Knights wrapped up their three-game road swing with the win and will return home for their next three contests. Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ will host Stetson next on Tuesday, Oct. 26 at 7 p.m. at the Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ Soccer Complex. The matchup with the Hatters marks the beginning of a three-game homestand for the Knights who will finish the regular season at Tulsa on Nov. 5 before the conference tournament the following week.

Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ again scored a late first-half goal, with junior Warren Creavalle (Acworth, Ga.) netting his second of the season with just 40 seconds remaining. Sophomore Eduardo Jimenez (San Juan, Puerto Rico), fresh off his first career goal in the Knights’ last game, picked up an assist, as well as senior and team captain Yaron Bacher (Atlanta, Ga.) on the game’s opening tally.

“It was huge for us to get that goal and some momentum headed into the half,” head coach Bryan Cunningham said.

“After scoring out first goal, we are always looking for that second goal,” Creavalle said. “After half, we wanted to go out and we were able to get it early on in the half.”

That early second-half goal came from junior Cameron Cooksey (Marietta, Ga.) in the 56th minute. The third-year forward was able to take a pass from Creavalle and find the back of the net for his fourth of the season. Sophomore Nik Robson (Auckland, New Zealand) was also credited with an assist after putting the centering pass to Creavalle to start the play.

Robson was not done, collecting the primary assist on Luiz Yamashita’s (Sao Paulo, Brazil) goal in the 70th minute for Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½’s third goal. Robson’s shot was blocked out into the middle of the penalty box to a waiting Yamashita, who corralled the loose ball and put into the net for his second goal in as many games.

Robson now has three assists in his last two games and has at least one point in each of the Knights’ last seven contests.

After holding the Tigers without a shot through the first 82 minutes of play, Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ goalkeeper Shawn Doyle (Ft. Myers, Fla.) was tested several times in the final minutes. Stopping a Memphis shot pointblank, Doyle also had to turn aside a rebound from the foot of Parker Duncan waiting on the door step.

The second-year keeper has now posted consecutive shutouts and has five this season.

“As a whole, the team has played really hard and that’s what we’ve been trying to do this entire year,” Doyle said. “We’ve had the success so far because we have outworked teams and I think that defensively we have been grinding out games and that’s how we have these shutouts.”

The Knights’ defense again was on its game, limiting opportunities and tightening in the final minutes with Memphis continuing to sustain offensive pressure.

“This is a conference game and you knew that Memphis would be fighting every minute of the match,” Cunningham added. “Credit to all the players for holding that team off in the late stages and not allow them to score one against us, which is always nice.”

The Knights head back on the road for their next game. Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ will travel to Lexington, Ky., to take on Kentucky on Oct. 13 for the start of a three-game road swing.