The National Junior College Athletic Association last week named a first-year AACC soccer player to its Division III Second Team All-American.

Transfer studies student Zane Saab, a goalie, is the first Riverhawk soccer player to earn an All-American bid since 2016, when Robert Masters, a midfielder who graduated in 2017, won the honor.

Saab “organizes [the] defense really well,” AACC men’s soccer coach Nick Cosentino said. “He’s a team player. He knows the game.”

He added that all three of the team’s goalies did “a really good job of making each other better in practice. And they added a special bond … by helping each other out.”

Cosentino noted that this is a team award “to the extent that without team success it is very difficult to get some individual honors.”

Saab’s teammate, midfielder Nick Llerena, agreed.

Llerena, a first-year transfer studies student, recalled telling Saab at halftime at the Sept. 30 game against Howard Community College, “The only way we win this game is if we score a set-piece and you keep the ball.” Llerena added that a free kick was the only way the team could score.

The Riverhawks triumphed with a free kick and Llerena scored. Llerena looked at Saab and said, “It’s your turn now,” he recalled. The Riverhawks won the game 1-0.

Saab said he was grateful to be motivated by those around him. In fact, he said he joined the team after the start of the season because his parents pushed him to play soccer this year.

Once committed to the team, Saab said he was sure to work “really hard this season [and show] up to practice [to give] it 120% every day.”

Saab said he hopes to continue his soccer career at a four-year university.

Cosentino said the All-American honor might help Saab reach that goal.

“It’s always good to get recognition,” Cosentino said. “I think it does give you some credibility when it comes to if you want to play at … a four year school.”