Eight Men’s Soccer Players Among Atlantic 10 Award Winners

Newport News, Va. – (November 8, 2017) – As four teams converge on Dayton, Ohio, for the 2017 Atlantic 10 Men's Soccer Championship, the Atlantic 10 Conference announced its men's soccer All-Conference Teams and major award winners on Wednesday.  Eight Fordham Rams were among the honorees, led by senior defender Matthew Lewis (Kansas City, Mo.), who named Atlantic 10 Defensive Player of the Year and First Team All-Atlantic 10.
 
Joining Lewis on the All-Conference First Team are senior midfielder Jannik Loebe (Kierspe, Germany), junior forward Janos Loebe (Kierspe, Germany), and junior goalkeeper Rashid Nuhu (Accra, Ghana), while sophomore defender Joergen Oland (Drammen, Norway) earned Second Team All-Atlantic 10 honors.  Senior midfielder Eric Ohlendorf (Merrick, N.Y.) received All-Academic honors for the second consecutive year with freshmen midfielders Andron Kagramanyan (Thornhill, Ontario) and Jacob Bohm (Berlin, Germany) being named to the conference's All-Rookie Team.
 
The eight players honored are the most for the Rams, since joining the Atlantic 10 Conference, surpassing the seven acknowledged in 2011.

 
Lewis, who missed only two minutes of action all year, is the second Ram to receive Atlantic 10 Defensive Player of the Year honors, joining Ryan Meara in 2011.  After receiving Second Team All-Atlantic 10 honors the last two years, the senior defender moved up to First Team honors this year, after leading the Fordham defense to a league-best ten shutouts.  The Rams also led the league in goals against average (0.70) and fewest goals allowed (13), and have been among the national leaders in goals against average and shutouts all season long.  In addition to his work on the backline, Lewis had a career-best six points offensively, posting a goal and career-high four assists, and set the career games started record at Fordham at 79 and counting, while being a game behind John Wolyniec's career games played record of 80 (1995-98).
 
Janos and Jannik Loebe garnered First Team All-Atlantic 10 honors for the second straight season.  Janos led the Atlantic 10 in both assists (9) and shots (61), while tying for second in game-winning goals (4), fourth in points (23), and 11^th in goals (7).  The Rams' team leader in every offensive category, he set career-highs in assists and points, while tying his personal-best for goals, which he set last season.  He was also twice named Atlantic 10 Offensive Player of the Week during the season.
 
Jannik finished second on the Rams with six goals and 15 points this season to go with three assists, as he has moved up the all-time Fordham scoring lists.  He currently ranks eighth in career goals (22), tenth in points (56), third in games played (77), and fifth in games started (75).  Most recently, he was named to the College Soccer New Team of the Week, after netting the game-winning goal in the Atlantic 10 quarterfinal over Dayton.  He has now scored in all four Atlantic 10 Championships that he has been in.

 
A Second Team All-Atlantic 10 selection last year, Nuhu has been stellar as the Rams' final line of defense this season, having already set career-highs in wins (12) and shutouts (10) and has been named Atlantic 10 Defensive Player of the Week four times.  Earlier this season, he joined Meara (2011) and Jeff Knuth (1987) as the only Ram goalkeepers to record ten shutouts in a single season.  He is currently on pace to set a new best in goal against average (0.70) and goals allowed (13).  Among conference netminders, Nuhu ranks first in goals against average and shutouts, second in wins and save percentage, and tied for seventh in saves.
 
Another member of that stellar defense is Oland, who earned Second Team All-Conference honors after being an All-Rookie Team selection in 2016.  On top of his work alongside Lewis as the Rams' starting center backs, he has connected on a career-high four goals for eight points. Oland enters the Atlantic 10 semifinals on a two-game goal streak, having scored in wins at UMass and Dayton.
 
Ohlendorf, a Biological Sciences major with a minor in Psychology, who has a 3.8 GPA, was picked to the Atlantic 10 All-Academic Team for the second consecutive season.  He has appeared in 15 games in 2017, making eight starts and recording one assist, which was against Saint Louis.  He is a three-year member of the Atlantic 10 Commissioner's Honor Roll, as well as a member of Fordham's Dean's List.
 
With the selection of Bohm and Kagramanyan, it marked the seventh consecutive year that Fordham has had at least one All-Rookie Team selection (2016 – Oland; 2015 – Janos Loebe, Nuhu; 2014 – Jannik Loebe; 2013 – Andrew Hickey; 2012 – Kyle Bitterman; 2011 – Jack-Tim Murphy).

 
After missing a good amount of time early in the year, Bohm recovered to start 11 of 13 games for the Rams.  He registered three goals and one assist for seven points, and was named the Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week once.  All three of his goals were game-winning tallies, which tied him for fifth in the league in that category.
 
Kagramanyan has fit in perfectly in the Rams' defensive midfield position, starting 17 of 18 games, and helping Fordham to all ten shutouts this season.  Offensively, he has one assist on the year, which came in a win at Rhode Island.
 
All eight award winners and the rest of the men's soccer team will now head back to Dayton for the Atlantic 10 Championship semifinal against top-seeded Massachusetts at 4:30 PM on Friday, November 10^th.