KANSAS CITY, Mo. – After leading the Keiser (Fla.) Seahawks to the program’s first NAIA Women’s Soccer National Title, Mat Dunn was named the Select Sport America-NAIA Coach of the Year for 2019 on Thursday. Dunn guided his squad to a 2-0 victory over Marian (Ind.) on December 7, 2019 in Orange Beach, Ala., to secure the team’s national title. The announcement occurred at the annual United Soccer Coaches’ National Convention.

Dunn led his Seahawks to an impressive 24-1 overall record in 2019 and while the offense was known to be explosive, the defense may have been just as good. Keiser was ranked No. 2 in the nation in total shutouts with 15.

After dropping a 2-1 overtime decision to defending national champion William Carey (Miss.), the Seahawks rattled-off 22 consecutive wins as the team allowed just two goals in final site play. For their efforts in final site play, Benedikte Schroeder and Josefine Troneby were named to the All-Tournament team. Both also received two of the top three awards at the championship as Troneby was named Most Outstanding Defensive Player while Schroeder was named Most Valuable Player.

Overall, the Seahawks had four honorees as 2019 NAIA Women’s Soccer All-America First Team selections. Filippa Millqvist, Maja Henriksson, Matilda Ovenberger and Nina Haeberlin were all named to the team in 2019, the most representatives of any institution on the first team. Additionally, Emma Holmskov, Kyoka Koshijma and Ronja Henriksson were all named honorable mentions for their contributions over the course of the season.

Keiser took full control in the NAIA National Championship Opening Round with an impressive 8-1 win over The Master’s (Calif.) to advance to the final site. Once in Orange Beach, the team got rolling right out of the gate with a 4-0 win over Rocky Mountain to advance to the quarterfinal round. The team earned a pair of 2-1 wins to get to the championship match, with a quarterfinal victory over Westmont (Calif.) and another against conference rival Southeastern (Fla.) in the semifinal round.

In the championship match, two goals and sound defense told the story. Keiser posted two goals nearly four minutes apart in both the 15^th and 19^th minutes of play while keeper Nina Haeberlin stopped the three shots she faced to take home the red banner.

The 2019 Select Sport America-NAIA National Coach of the Year is voted on by the NAIA-Women’s Soccer Coaches Association and is announced at the annual National Convention. To be eligible, a head coach must be selected as their conference or unaffiliated group coach of the year or lead their team to the NAIA Women’s Soccer National Championship postseason play.