LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif. — Four members of the Caltech men's soccer team earned 2024 All-Conference recognition on Wednesday, the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) announced.

Junior midfielder Etienne Casanova (San Jose, Calif. / Saratoga) and junior forward Ishaan Mantripragada (Saratoga, Calif. / Harker School) were both named First Team All-SCIAC for the second consecutive year while first-year forward Matthew Luk (Bel Air, Md. / C. Milton Wright) earned Second Team distinction and the conference's Newcomer of the Year Award. Senior defender Andrew Chiang (Carlsbad, Calif. Santa Fe Christian) earned the Award of Distinction.

Casanova earned the First Team All-SCIAC nod after putting in exceptional play all season long. The star finished the season with a team-high 12 goals to tie the program record for goals in a season — a record which had gone unmatched for 54 years. Casanova's 11 goals against countable opponents this year landed him second among all players in the conference, just one behind the SCIAC Men's Soccer Offensive Athlete of the Year winner. Four of Casanova's 12 goals were game-winners.

Perhaps even more notable was Casanova's assist total as he finished the year with 11, more than doubling the previous school record of five — a record he himself reached in 2023 to tie Mantripragada's five from 2022. Casanova's 10 assists against countable opponents this season put him No. 1 among all players in the conference in the category, with no other player logging more than eight. His countable point total was a whopping 32, putting him again first in the conference.

Casanova's most dominant performances included scoring six points two separate times. He netted two goals and accounted for two assists against Albion College as part of a 4-0 shutout victory before capping off the season producing the same dominant stat line against Cal Lutheran University as part of a 5-0 shutout win. Both performances put him tied for first in the conference for most points in a single game this season.

Mantripragada also posted a brilliant season to earn another First Team selection, posting massive numbers despite playing in just 13 out of 18 games due to injury. The standout scored nine goals in 2024, with eight coming on countable opponents to put him tied for sixth in the conference in scoring. Two of the midfielder's goals were game winners. The Harker School alum added one assist for 17 official points, putting him ninth on the SCIAC leaderboard.

Mantripragada recorded two multi-goal games, scoring two times in a 5-0 rout over Life Pacific University before scoring twice yet again in the team's impressive 3-3 draw with Pomona-Pitzer Colleges.

The rookie Luk won Second Team All-SCIAC as well as the Conference Newcomer of the Year award, beating out a host of talented other first-years; he becomes the fourth Caltech player in seven seasons to win the Men's Soccer Newcomer award. Luk made an immediate impact on the team and quickly grew into an integral piece of the Beavers' offense, finishing the year with 21 points to put him fifth on the SCIAC leaderboard. The exhilarating young player finished the fall tied for sixth in the SCIAC in scoring with eight goals and tied for eighth in assists with five.

The senior Chiang won the Award of Distinction as recognition for his incredible sportsmanship, leadership, attitude and effort as well as his for his academic contributions at Caltech. As stated in the SCIAC's official release, Chang served as "a captain and crucial team leader who plays nearly every minute of every game and did not accumulate a single yellow card over a four-year career."

"An Applied and Computational Mathematics major with a minor in Computer Science, Chiang has completed numerous research fellowships in machine learning with Caltech's Climate Modeling Alliance, HVAC systems with Fieldpiece, cost analysis for Stantec as well as teaching tennis to children with autism as part of Aceing Autism and tutoring refugees in math and English with the 1Must program in San Diego." Chiang has also done research on the effect on insulin on cell proliferation and Type 1 Diabetes; he aided a larger project testing how human islet transplantation surgery would help treat the disease.

This year's All-Conference awards mark the seventh time in eight seasons in which one or more Caltech Men's Soccer player has achieved All-SCIAC distinction. Read the full list of 2024 All-SCIAC winners here.

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