Wisconsin Soccer Central

Seven state players earned spots on Capital One Academic All-America soccer teams, with four student-athletes named to the first team in their respective divisions in voting done by the College Sports Information Directors of America.

Marquette junior goalkeeper Charlie Lyon and UW-Milwaukee junior midfielder Laurie Bell made the NCAA Division I men's first team. On the women's side, Marquette senior midfielder Kate Reigle (Brookfield East) was a Division I first-teamer and St. Norbert junior forward Katie Vanden Avond (De Pere) made the top team for Division III.

Lyon has posted 10 shutouts for the second straight season for the Golden Eagles, who will play at Virginia on Sunday in a third-round match of the NCAA tournament. He's played every minute in goal for the past two years, posting 29 victories, and carries a 3.86 grade-point average in biomedical sciences. Lyon joins Scott Ziemba (1995 and '96) as the only Marquette men's soccer players to be an Academic All-American.

Bell, who has a 3.72 GPA in English and Journalism, had 13 goals and four assists and was named the Horizon League Offensive Player of the Year. He is the sixth Panthers men's soccer player to earn Academic All-America honors and the second to make the first team, following Antou Jallow in 2004.

Notre Dame's Patrick Hodan (Milwaukee Marquette), the second-leading scorer for the Fighting Irish with seven goals and five assists heading into Sunday's third-round NCAA match against Wake Forest, made the Division I third team. The sophomore midfielder has a 3.92 GPA in business.

In Division III, Edgewood College's Andrew Aurit (Monroe) was named to the second team for the second straight year – the first Eagles player to accomplish the feat. The senior forward led Edgewood with six goals and six assists this season and sports a 3.94 GPA in business.

Reigle has a 4.00 GPA in biomedical sciences and claimed her third Academic All-America award, earning a spot on the first team after making the second and third teams the past two years. She had two assists this season and finished her career with 11 goals and 14 assists for the Golden Eagles, who won Big East Conference titles and qualified for the NCAA tournament in each of her four seasons.

Vanden Avond led the nation with 37 goals this fall, and her 91 career goals are the most of any active player in the country.  She carries a 3.42 GPA in business administration and communications, and is the fourth player in Green Knights history to be an Academic All-American – the only other first-team pick was Rachelle Barina in 2008.

UW-Whitewater junior defender Kelsey Beld (Madison Memorial), a 4.00 student majoring in accounting, was a third-team selection for Division III women. She is just the second Warhawks player to collect Academic All-America plaudits.

• Five state schools – Edgewood College, Lawrence, Marquette, UW-Green Bay and UW-Milwaukee – are among the 184 schools nationwide that had both their men's and women's teams earn the Team Academic Award from the National Soccer Coaches Association of America for the 2012-13 academic year. Here are the state teams and teams with state coaches that claimed the award, which requires a team grade-point average of 3.0 or better:

• Bell and Marquette sophomore striker C. Nortey are among 29 players nominated for the men's Soccer News Net Player of the Year. Online fan voting closes Dec. 19 and will account for 40 percent of the award. Vote here
• UW-La Crosse women's coach Sara Burton stepped down after 20 years to accept an administrative role in the school's athletic department. Burton compiled a 173-149-31 record, including a 78-64-17 mark in WIAC play. She was named conference coach of the year in 1996, when the Eagles beat UW-Stevens Point 4-1 in the WIAC tournament final to claim their lone conference title. La Crosse finished 6-11-1 overall and 3-4-1 in the WIAC this season.
• Carrie Barker (UW) was named coach of the new women's program at Rock Valley College, a junior college in Rockford, Ill. Barker coached at Northern Illinois from 2008 to '11, following stints as an assistant at Michigan (1997 to 2004) and UW (2004 to '07). The Golden Eagles will field men's and women's teams in the North Central Community College Conference next fall.