SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Santa Clara men's soccer returned to prominence in 2015 behind its 12th West Coast Conference title and 20th trip to the NCAA tournament. The Broncos win at Cal State Fullerton in the tournament's first round was the 25th in program history.

"The 2015 season was going to be a great challenge," said Santa Clara head coach Cameron Rast. "We knew we had scheduled a group of very good teams, some of the top teams in the country. Right off the bat we ended up playing the No. 1 team in the country in Wake Forest. We competed well with them and North Carolina on the opening weekend. That set a stage for us to know what the standard in the country would be. For us it was a good season to see what it takes to win. I'm really proud of the guys for sticking with it. They gave everything and got rewarded."

The Broncos (11-8-1, 5-1-1 WCC) picked up two individual awards from the West Coast Conference and had seven players honored on the all-conference teams. Kendall McIntosh was named WCC co-Goalkeeper of the Year, Luis Urias was named Freshman of the Year, and head coach Cameron Rast was named Coach of the Year.

Carlos Delgadillo and Valdemar Anderson were named First Team All-WCC, McIntosh and Max Ornstill were named to the second team, Urias and Paker Holland were honorable mention, and Urias and Matt Sipowicz were named to the all-freshman team.

Santa Clara played six teams (Wake Forest, North Carolina, Seattle, Cal Poly, Akron, Stanford) that made the tournament. Wake Forest (No. 2), North Carolina (No. 4), Akron (No. 6), Stanford (No. 8), and Seattle (No. 9) all finished the season in the RPI top-10 with Cal Poly finishing at No. 30. Stanford finished the season as national champions.

"Playing great competition just hardened the group and lifted our standard of play," said Rast. "The next step is to learn what it takes to win those games. We put ourselves in position to win a few of those games as the season went on but those games snuck away from us. It lifted the standard and that's why we put that schedule together."

Delgadillo led Santa Clara with 10 goals and 24 points while finishing second on the team with four assists. Alfred Edmonds led the team with five assists and scored a goal as well. Edson Cardona scored four times with one assist and Dylan Autran found the back of the net three times to go with three helpers.

McIntosh allowed 23 goals for a 1.13 GAA and made 72 saves for a .758 save percentage. Jackson and the Bronco defense collected six shutouts on the season.

The Broncos had a rough start to the season, going 1-4-0 but got things turned around with back-to-back wins vs. Cal Poly and UC Riverside.

"Early on we struggled to find consistency in getting results but the consistency in our performance was good and I think that's what eventually emerged as the season went on," said Rast. "When it came down to the stretch run, we had no room for error. We were able to win out and win the WCC title and get the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, which is great for us. We're really happy about that."

They really began to shine when the stakes were the highest. After a conference-opening loss to San Francisco, the Broncos went unbeaten (5-0-1) in the final six conference games. Needing a win on senior night, Santa Clara topped San Diego 3-0 to close out the conference title.

"Any time this team had its back against the wall, they were able to focus and be sharp," said Rast. "They understood what they needed to do. The guys hung in there. A couple of player personnel decisions we made gave us some consistency. The players that came in created some better chemistry, which is something you almost can't explain."

Santa Clara is in an enviable position with many key players returning to a team coming off a conference championship. With a strong incoming freshmen class, the Broncos have a bright future in front of them.

"We lose a great group of five seniors that really carried the day for us this year," said Rast. "The guys that are returning are very good. Their experience will make a difference going forward. Our back line is largely in tact and we have some people coming back in the midfield. We have some guys coming in that we feel can step in to some of our vacancies. We feel we've set ourselves up to be good going forward."