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Cheick Diarra

BUFFALO, NY - The Buffalo men's soccer team has just completed one of its most successful season's in recent history and now the players are getting their recognition for it. It was announced on Friday that senior Cheick Diarra (Hillsborough, NJ/John Bartram) was named to the All-Mid-American Conference Second Team. This is the first postseason award for Diarra, who scored a career high in goals this season with two, but was mainly known for being one of the best defenders in the league. Diarra is the first UB player to earn this honor since the 2002 season when the Bulls had Mike Peplinski on the All-MAC First Team and Geoff Thompson on the All-MAC Second Team.

Lee Catchpole

The Bulls received more good news on Friday when it was announced that senior Andrew Butler (Yorkshire, England/Mirfield) and freshman Lee Catchpole (Norwich, England/Bungay) were named to the 2004 Mid-American Conference All-Tournament Team. Both players made significant contributions to the team's 2-1 quarterfinal victory over Northern Illinois and their semifinal loss to Akron. Catchpole, who missed the final seven regular season games due to an injury, scored all three goals for the Bulls in the tournament and Butler showed strong defensive play in leading his team to victory.

Six out of the seven MAC schools were represented on this year's All-MAC teams, with the lone exception being Bowling Green. Diarra is joined by Kirk Gibson and Mike Barbera from Marshall, Michael D'Agostino and Michael Strong from Kentucky, Edgar Rivera and Ryan Goldman from Western Michigan, and Justin McGrane, Fraser Gibson, Bruce Conrad, and Steve Goletz from Northern Illinois.

Andrew Butler

The All-Tournament team is made up of the four schools that made it to the conference semi-finals, which are Buffalo, Kentucky, Akron, and Western Michigan. Joining Catchpole and Butler on the team are Brandon Stewart and Nathan Li from Kentucky, Jason Okroy, Chris Okroy, and Giuliano Teixeira from Western Michigan, and Cameron Knowles, Alex Owell, Corey Sipos, and Ross Mckenzie from Akron. The Akron Zips went on to win the 2004 MAC Championship by a score of 6-1.

The Bulls finished the season with an 8-8-2 record. Their seven win improvement from last year is the highest in team history.