Lauren Gollnick     

SAN RAFAEL, CA — Dominican University of California men’s and women’s soccer players collected weekly Pacific West Conference honors. Freshman LaurenGollnick has been named the women’s Player of the Week while sophomore Kolby Mitnick has been named the men’s Player of the Week.

Gollnick, who earns the honor for the second time this season, led the Lady Penguins to a 1-0-1 week in Hawaii by totaling seven points on three goals and an assist. The Meadow Vista, California native and former Placer United player, scored her third game-winning goal and added an assist in a three-point effort in 3-0 win at Chaminade University on October 26. She also scored both goals and finished with four points in a 2-2 double-overtime tie at Hawaii Pacific University on October 28. In PacWest play, Gollnick is fourth in points and tied for third in assists.

Kolby Mitnick

Mitnick earned the honor on the men’s side after he totaled seven points during a 1-0-1 week for the Penguins. The former Placer United  and Newcastle native scored two goals and added an assist in a 5-2 win at Chaminade University on October 26, finishing the game with five points. He was credited with the game-winner, his team-leading fourth of the season, and helped rally the Penguins from an early 2-0 deficit by scoring goals in the 33rd and 60th minutes.

Mitnick also led the Penguins to a comeback tie at Hawaii Pacific University on October 28 by scoring the game-tying goal in the 61st minute to forge a 2-2 double-overtime draw. Like the Chaminade contest, the Penguins trailed 2-0 but rallied to pick up a point in the standings.

Lauren Gollnick

Kolby Mitnick

Ryan Hollingshead, UCLA – Pac-12 Player of the Year

The Granite Bay native and former Placer United Player is the fifth UCLA player to earn Conference Player of the Year honors. Hollingshead joins fellow Bruins Matt Taylor (2003), Patrick Ianni (2004), Michael Stephens (2008) and last year’s winner Kelyn Rowe (2011) to win this award. Hollingshead was a second-team all-conference honoree in 2011 and earned honorable mention honors in 2010. The senior midfielder tallied 20 points this season with six goals and five assists. Hollingshead is second on the team in both goals and assists. He leads the Bruins to their 40th all-time NCAA tournament appearance earning the No. 6 seed and a first-round bye.

Seth Casiple, Cal Berkeley – Named to All Pac-12 2nd Team of the Year

Seth Casiple, Rocklin High School and Placer United alum, had another outstanding year for Cal and was named to the 2012 Pac-12 second team of the year. Seth adds this award to his Pac-12 Freshman of the Year award for 2011 and All Pac-12 2011 Honorable Mention as well as the Soccer America All-Freshman 2011 Team and College Soccer News All-Freshman Second 2011 Team.

Casey Bernard, CSUS – Named to Big West Conference Team of the Year

Casey Bernard was the rock of the Sacramento State defense. The former Placer United senior from Roseville started all 13 games he appeared in and played 1,183 minutes in the season.

November 11, 2012

SAN RAFAEL, CA — Lauren Gollnick, Dominican University, has been named the 2012 Pacific West Conference Women’s Soccer Freshman of the Year. In addition, Gollnick was named to the All-PacWest First Team as a forward. Senior forward Julianna Bratsberg and junior goalkeeper Megan Herringboth earned Second Team honors while sophomore midfielder Mckenna Kimball earned an honorable mention. The awards were announced live on air during Thursday’s PacWest Radio Show by Conference Sports Information Director Tom Di Camillo.  Read More

The High School soccer final everybody has waited years to see, Jesuit versus Granite Bay, was just the platform Placer United dazzling senior midfielder, Niko Hansen, needed as he scored three of his team’s five goals to help Jesuit High School win its10th D-I section championship and third in four years. It was also Niko’s 2nd hat trick in two games as he led the team in scoring with 35 goals for the season.

Hansen, the Delta River League Player-of-the-Year has also verbally committed to New Mexico, who is currently ranked 13th in the Nation heading into the NCAA Division 1 Playoffs.

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The NCAA Division One Playoffs are ready to begin this week and we wish the following former Placer United players all the best as they strive to become NCAA Division One Champions:

• Austin Dunn, University of San Diego
• Joey Haug, U.S. Airforce Academy
• Ryan Hollingshead, University of California Los Angeles
• Gabe Padilla, Georgetown University.
• Grant Silvestre, University Of Virginia

Senior captain, Ryan Hollingshead, scored Bruins’ first goal on Friday to lead them to Pac-12 title

November 12, 2012

Los Angeles, CA – Senior captain Ryan Hollingshead has been named to the College Soccer News National Team of the Week for the week of November 5-11, as announced by the publication today.

The Granite Bay, California, native and former Placer United player helped UCLA win its fourth Pac-12 title in five years on Friday as the Bruins defeated San Diego State by a score of 2-1. Hollingshead scored UCLA’s first goal of the match when he headed in a cross from Evan Raynr for his sixth goal of the season. The senior midfielder now leads the Bruins with 20 points on the year and is second in the Pac-12 with eight assists, trailing Raynr by just one assist.

The NCAA Women’s Division 1, 2 and 3 National Championships began this past weekend and Placer United has EIGHT alumni participating!

Division 1

Maria De La Cruz – Idaho State

Mikaela Arnstein – UCLA

Miranda Bailey – BYU

Division 2

Caitlin Jones – Sonoma State Univ

Morgan Garcia – Barry University

Division 3

Ashley Sweeting – Chapman Univeristy

Caitlin Clark – Emory Univeristy

Lexi Giusti – Lesley Univeristy

Congrats to our female alumni. We look forward to seeing them on the field at the 7th Annual Placer United Alumni Game on Friday, December 21st.