Oct. 2, 2000

COLLEGE PARK, MD. - Junior co-captain Nick Downing (Redmond, Wash.) has been named as one of the finalists for the Missouri Athletic Club's Collegiate Soccer Player of the Year Award, as announced Monday by the Missouri Athletic Club. Downing, a two-year starter on defense for the Terps, was also a finalist for the award his sophomore year and is one of only three repeat candidates for the prestigious award. Duke's Ali Curtis, who finished second in the balloting last year, and Connecticut's Brent Rahim were the other two repeat candidates. Downing is one of three ACC players on the short-list for the MAC Collegiate Player of the Year.

The Maryland men's soccer team (4-5, 1-2 ACC) hosts its first two games of a three-game home stint this week when they host unranked Monmouth (3-4-2) and No. 17 North Carolina (8-2, 2-1 ACC) this week. Monmouth heads to Ludwig Field on Wednesday, and North Carolina visits the Terps' home field Saturday. Both games start at 7 p.m

2000 Missouri Athletic Club Finalists
Carl Bussey      	Southern Methodist
Jason Cole	        St. Louis
Ali Curtis	        Duke
Nick Downing	        Maryland
Mahamed Fahim	        Southern Methodist
Chris Gbandi	        Connecticut
T.J. Hannig	        Indiana
Jack Jewsbury	        St. Louis
Ryan Mack	        Indiana
Lee Morrison	        Stanford
Pat Noonan 	        Indiana
Brent Rahim	        Connecticut
McKinley Tennyson, Jr.	UCLA
Ryan Trout	        Virginia
Ricardo Villar	        Penn State

Players to Watch: Conor Casey (Portland), Kyle Martino (Virginia), Flavio Monteiro (Alabama-Birmingham), Brad Davis (St. Louis) and Alex Yi (UCLA)