BLACKSBURG – Announced by the league office on Tuesday afternoon, three Hokies were named to the ALL- ACC Academic team as Jon Ingason and James Kasak received academic honors for the third tim, while Kristo Strickler made his first appearance on the academic team.
The three honorees were all pivotal members of the 2019 Virginia Tech men's soccer team, as the trio helped the Hokies reach their fourth consecutive NCAA tournament appearance, earn the highest national seeding in program history (10th) and make the Sweet Sixteen for the second consecutive season.
Kasak, who will graduate in the spring with a degree in Finance, was recently selected by Sporting Kansas City with the 84th pick of the MLS Draft. The Stuarts Draft, Virginia native started all 19 games and was a moveable piece throughout the midfield for the Hokies. Kasak finished his final season with Tech tallying a career high three goals, to go along with his five assists for 11 points.
Ingason led a Tech backline that recorded shutouts against Gardner-Web, Grand Canyon and the No. 1 scoring offense in the country, Clemson. The defender scored six goals, all resulting from set pieces, and added two assists for 14 points on the year. The senior captain will graduate in the spring with a degree in psychology.
Stickler, a junior in the Health, Nutrition, Food and Exercise program (HNFE), makes his first appearance on the academic team after an impressive 2019 season. The Hilliard, Ohio native garnered second-team ACC and All-Region honors after tallying three assists and leading the Hokies in scoring with 11 goals. Strickler also set new career highs in game-winning goals (4), multi-goal games (3) and recorded the first hat trick of his career in Tech's win against Gardner-Web.
The ACC Honor Roll, which recognizes all conference student-athletes with a grade point average of 3.0 for the current academic year, will be released in July.
You can see the full 2019 All-ACC Academic team and release HERE