Vote for Josh Yaro for the MAC Hermann Trophy!

WASHINGTON - Georgetown University sophomore defender Joshua Yaro (Santa Barbara, Calif./Cate School) is one of 16 men's soccer student-athletes that have been selected as semifinalists for the country's top soccer award. Sixteen men and 16 women were announced on Tuesday as the Missouri Athletic Club's (MAC) Hermann Trophy semifinalists.

The MAC Hermann Trophy is the highest individual award in intercollegiate soccer. It is presented annually in January during a banquet at the Missouri Athletic Club in St. Louis.

NCAA Division I coaches will help select the winner. Just like last year, fan voting is a component of deciding the winner. It will be conducted through LockerDome, which allows fans to also contribute to picking winners.

Yaro was named the BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year and was a unanimous selection to the First Team. He has been a key part of Georgetown's 10 shutouts this season, including a league-best six in the nine conference games played. He also got into the action on offense with an assist coming at Princeton. Yaro earned BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Week honors on three occasions this season and was a member of the Preseason All-BIG EAST squad.

It was Yaro's first BIG EAST honor despite being named NSCAA Second Team All-Region and First Team All-American by CollegeSoccerNews.com as a freshman. Last year, he was named to the BIG EAST's All-Rookie squad.

The last Hoya semifinalist was Steve Neumann last season.

Yaro was on the Hermann Watch List at the beginning of the season along with four other semifinalists. There are just two players from the BIG EAST Conference.

Georgetown, Stanford and UCLA were the only institutions to have a student-athlete on both the men's and the women's list with Hoya senior midfielder Daphne Corboz (Green Brook, N.J./Watchung Hills) earning a spot on the women's side.

The top three vote-getters for each gender from the combined NSCAA coaches and weighted fan votes will be announced as finalists in mid-December, followed by the announcement of the winners at the banquet, Friday, Jan. 9, 2015.

The Hoyas are currently 14-4-4 on the season and have advanced to the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals where they will host the University of Virginia on Saturday at 1 p.m., at Shaw Field. Live stats and a free premium broadcast featuring Dan Helfrich and Tom Greaser will be available at www.GUHoyas.com.