ST. LOUIS — Four Belmont University men's soccer players have earned postseason honors from the Missouri Valley Conference for their on-field performance throughout the fall. Sophomore
Paul Claes Nielsen and freshman
Leon De Ciccio highlight the Bruins' All-MVC selections as Claes Nielsen has been named MVC Midfielder of the Year and De Ciccio has been tabbed MVC Freshman of the Year. Along with Claes Nielsen, graduate midfielder
John McDowell has been chosen to the All-MVC First Team, while De Ciccio has landed a spot on both the All-MVC Second Team and MVC All-Freshman Team. Freshman defender
Judah McCloud has been voted to the MVC All-Freshman Team as well.
Claes Nielsen is Belmont's first midfielder of the year and first conference positional player of the year since Jay Ayres was named Atlantic Sun Conference Defensive Player of the Year in 2007.
De Ciccio is the Bruins' first freshman of the year since Matteo Bennati was deemed Horizon League Freshman of the Year in 2017.
Both Claes Nielsen (5) and McDowell (5) led Belmont in goals this season, helping the Bruins to an MVC-best 27 goals on the year. The pair tied for the third-most goals in the conference. It marks the second consecutive year Belmont has had two All-MVC First Team selections. Defender
Dylan Steely and midfielder
Brad Dildy were the Bruins' first-ever All-MVC First Team honorees last year.
A native of Copenhagen, Denmark, Claes Nielsen was a MVC All-Freshman Team pick last season and was placed on the Preseason All-MVC Team this summer. He is the first Belmont player to record 50 shots in a season since Niccolo Dagnoni did so in 2019. Claes Nielsen placed a team-high 20 shots on target and assisted on a goal in the Bruins' 4-1 home win over Southern Indiana. In Belmont's MVC opener at Drake, Claes Nielsen found the game winner in the 88th minute for the Bruins' first-ever victory over the Bulldogs in Des Moines, Iowa.
The lone freshman on the 2026 All-MVC Second Team, De Ciccio helped anchor Belmont's back line as a standout defender. The Tullinge, Sweden, native started all of the Bruins' 17 matches and played nearly every minute of the season, including logging 90 minutes in all six MVC matches.
Going 4-for-4 on penalty kicks, McDowell placed 17 of his 37 shots on goal and tied for the most assists on the team with four. A native of Chapel Hill, North Carolina (C.E. Jordan HS), McDowell was responsible for equalizing PKs in Belmont's home draws with Mercer and the University of Illinois Chicago. He also opened the Bruins' scoring in Belmont's 6-1 road rout of Wright State and had go-ahead PKs in wins over Drake and Bradley.
Alongside De Ciccio, McCloud played an integral role in the Bruins' back line as starting center back. Starting all 15 matches he played in before missing the last two contests of the season due to injury, McCloud scored Belmont's opening goal in the 3-0 home shutout of the University of St. Thomas. Hailing from Frisco, Texas (Homelife Academy), McCloud also had the assist on the Bruins' go-ahead goal in the convincing triumph at Wright State. He finished the year with nine shots, two of which were on target.
For the second-straight year, Belmont has captured the MVC Fair Play Award, which is given annually to the team who has accumulated the fewest penalty cards throughout all regular season matches. The Bruins were carded just 20 times during the regular season and went six matches without receiving a penalty card. The award is structured after the FIFA Fair Play honor.
Belmont went 2-2-2 in the Valley and earned the right to host a MVC Championship first round match for the second consecutive year as the No. 4 seed.
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