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IRVINE, Calif. -- The Big West has released its 2022 all-conference teams and major award winners prior to Wednesday’s primetime kickoff of The Big West Men’s Soccer Championship.

Junior forward Finn Ballard McBride is The Big West Offensive Player of the Year, while UC Santa Barbara teammate and fellow Australian Henry Davies is the repeat Big West Defensive Player of the Year. Carlos Gonzalez of UC Riverside and the Gauchos’ Leroy Zeller are The Big West Co-Goalkeepers of the Year, with Sebastian Cruz of Cal State Fullerton earning Big West Midfielder of the Year distinction and CSUN’s David Diaz The Big West Freshman of the Year.

Tim Cupello has been voted by peers as The Big West Coach of the Year for the first time after directing UC Riverside to its first regular-season title in dramatic fashion on the final night of the league schedule.

A native of Sydney, Australia, Ballard McBride tops the league with his 13 goals, 27 total points (one assist) and five game-winning strikes, managing to do so on just 29 shot attempts, 16 of them on target. The now-two-time All-Big West First Team pick and 2019 Big West Freshman of the Year is tied with two others for second nationally in goals, just one off the lead, and is sixth in points.

Ballard McBride has started 14 of 18 matches played for the Gauchos, the No. 2 seeds for The Big West Championship with a first-round bye directly through to the semifinals at home this Saturday, Nov. 5. Four two-goal braces and nine total scores have come in October over the last eight games. Ballard McBride is UCSB’s first Big West Offensive Player of the Year since Nick DePuy went back-to-back-to-back from 2014-16. This is an 11th such award for the program.

Out of Springwood, Australia, Davies is one of three Gauchos to start all 18 matches in 2022. The senior center back has helped anchor seven shutouts, including six in a row to open league play from Sept. 28 to Oct. 19, as UCSB held opponents scoreless over a span of 657:33. Davies, who has also contributed a pair of goals offensively, is the first repeat Big West Defensive Player of the Year since UC Davis’ Roy Boateng in 2017-18. UCSB’s Andy Iro had notched three in a row from 2005-07, and CSUN’s Edwin Miranda two in 2002-03. Gauchos have received this award for three successive seasons now after Noah Billingsley in 2019, and 12 times in all since 2001.

Cruz appeared in all 19 matches for Cal State Fullerton, beginning each one. The fourth-year junior led the squad with eight goals, 22 total points and 51 shots, and was tied for second with six assists. All were career-high totals. In The Big West ranks, Cruz is first in shots and shots on goal (21-tied), second in goals and points, and tied for third in assists. The Kerman product has started all 56 games the Titans have played since 2019. Their only previous Big West Midfielder of the Year was Ross McPhie in 2017.

Gonzalez has started all 17 games and played all 1,530 minutes this season for UC Riverside. The fourth-year junior has kept four clean sheets and posted 64 saves, a 1.41 goals-against average and a save percentage of .727. The Santa Ana native compiled a season-high nine stops in last Saturday’s huge victory over UCSB for the regular-season crown. Gonzalez is the Highlanders’ second-ever Big West Goalkeeper of the Year, following Charles Alamo in 2007.

Zeller has been in the Gaucho net for every one of 18 games and 1,620 minutes in 2022. The fourth-year junior and second-year transfer is tied for first in The Big West with seven shutouts, second in save percentage (.772), and third in saves (61) and GAA (1.000). The product of Zülpich, Germany, is UCSB’s first Big West Goalkeeper of the Year since Sam Hayden went back-to-back in 2009-10, and gives the Gauchos six in all.

Diaz has appeared in 16 of CSUN’s 17 matches, starting nine of them. The true freshman forward has contributed seven points from two goals and three assists to the Matador attack, beginning with a 64th-minute game-winner as a first career goal in Diaz’s college debut, a 2-1 home victory over San Diego State back on Aug. 25. The North Hills native is second on the team in points. Diaz is CSUN’s first Big West Freshman of the Year since Kevin Guppy in 2005, and fourth total.

Cupello is in his 13th year at UC Riverside and ninth as the head coach after serving in an interim capacity during the 2013 season. The Highlanders posted a 5-2-2 league mark. They entered Saturday night two points back of UC Santa Barbara, with nothing less than a win necessary to overtake the Gauchos and make program history with a first regular-season trophy. Capello’s pupils, favored for fourth in the preseason, got the job done, breaking a 1-1 halftime deadlock with three unanswered tallies in the second period and securing the top seed and a first-round bye for The Big West Championship. The Highlanders will now host a semifinal this Saturday, Nov. 5, at UC Riverside Soccer Stadium, where they are 4-1-2 in 2022. Cupello is UCR’s second-ever Big West Coach of the Year, following “Junior” Gonzalez in 2011.

Ballard McBride, Cruz, Davies, Gonzalez and Zeller are accompanied on the 14-member All-Big West First Team by UCR’s Brendan Clark, Leopoldo Hernandez, Noah Lopez and Aleksander Vukovic, UCSB’s Sam Fletcher, Ashish Chattha of UC Irvine, AJ Johnson and Jamar Ricketts of CSUN, and Austin Wehner of Sacramento State.

Holdovers from the 2021 All-Big West First Team include Ballard McBride, Chattha and Davies. Fletcher, Hernandez and Zeller were on the second team, while Cruz gained honorable mention. Gonzalez and Ricketts had been chosen to the freshman squad. Ballard McBride, the 2021 Big West Championship Most Valuable Player, also made it onto the second team in 2019, and that All-Freshman Team alongside Cruz.

UC Riverside took up the most spots on this year’s first team with five, followed by the UC Santa Barbara quartet and the duo from CSUN. UC San Diego put three on the 12-player second team, with another two Matadors making that list, as well as a pair of Anteaters. Ten more student-athletes garnered All-Big West honorable mentions.

Diaz headlines the 11-member Big West All-Freshman Team, alongside the Sacramento State trio of Justin Faison, Danny Govea and goalkeeper Edgar Guerra, the UCI tandem of Diego Otoya and Agaton Pourshahidi, Highlanders Westley Hastings and Alfonso Ramirez, UC Davis’ Cason Goodman, Filip Basili of UCSB, and Cal Poly’s Sean McTague.

The six-team Big West Men’s Soccer Championship gets underway Wednesday with a pair of first-round tilts at higher-seeded campus sites. Sixth-seeded Sacramento State is at No. 3 seed UC Irvine at 6 p.m., and fifth-seeded UC Davis plays at No. 4 seed CSUN at 7 p.m.

Regular-season champion and No. 1 seed UC Riverside will be joined by Wednesday’s two advancing sides, as well as No. 2 seed UC Santa Barbara, in the semifinals on Saturday, Nov. 5. The Highlanders will host either the Matadors or Aggies, while the Gauchos welcome in the ‘Eaters or Hornets. Both semis kick off at 7 p.m. The championship match next Saturday, Nov. 12, takes place on the campus of the highest remaining seed, with the winner earning The Big West’s automatic bid into the 2022 NCAA Championship. All six games are scheduled to air live on ESPN+.