NCAA Division 3 Final Four — Spotlight on Stormville’s Nik Angyal
Angyal walked on as a freshman and has barely been substituted during the last two years.
It should be an eventful weekend upcoming for two Stormville residents, Nik Angyal and his former coach, Jim Purdy.
While Purdy, the East Hudson Youth Soccer League (EHYSL) President, will be inducted into the Eastern New York Hall of Fame this Saturday, December 1, Angyal and his University of Rochester teammates will be playing in the NCAA Division 3 Final Four in Greensboro, North Carolina this weekend.
The Yellowjackets advanced to the Final Four by defeating #1 ranked Messiah College, 2-1, on November 18 and they will be facing Tufts University this Friday afternoon.
“I am super-excited to have the opportunity to play in the Final Four. This is the furthest the University of Rochester has ever advanced in the NCAA tournament and it feels very special to be making history,” Angyal stated. “This season has been an amazing ride and it would be perfect to cap it off with a national championship.“
In the EHYSL, Angyal played for the East Hudson Academy for seven years from 2007 to ’13 and competed for EHYSL club teams East Fishkill Cyclones and East Fishkill Blue Lightning. He returned to East Hudson as a young man and was coached by Purdy on East Fishkill’s Under-23 team in the summer of 2015.
Additionally, Angyal played for John Jay High School from 2011 to ’15, winning the Section One championship in 2014.
At the University of Rochester, he walked on as a freshman with the 2016 spring team, played in three matches as a sophomore in the 2016 regular season, then played in 21 games as a junior last year and received CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America) Second Team All-Academic honors with a 4.00 average while majoring in chemical engineering. The senior defender has started all 20 games that the Yellowjackets have played so far this fall.
“I got to know Nik a bit when I coached him a few years back on the East Fishkill U23 team. I remember us having a conversation about his college plans and soccer. He advised that he was going to Rochester and major in engineering so I asked about playing and he said he was hoping to walk on. By his second academic year, he was on the roster and a starter by the third. He has barely come off the field since,” Purdy explained.
“While his soccer achievements stand on their own, his Academic All-American status as a junior and a candidate for the same as a senior may be his greatest achievements.“
Purdy concluded, “A great young man from a great family and I am truly pulling for him in the NCAA Final Four. It is always great to see those with soccer beginnings in East Hudson doing so well.“
Angyal is not the only Yellowjacket to have grown up playing in the Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association (ENYYSA) as teammates Lasha Alkhazishvili, Mike D’Amico and Alec Hay did as well.
Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association: With over 100,000 youth soccer players–both boys and girls–and more than 25,000 volunteers, the non-profit Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association (ENYYSA) reaches from Montauk Point, Long Island to the Canadian border. Members are affiliated with nine leagues throughout the association, which covers the entire state of New York east of Route 81. ENYYSA exists to promote and enhance the game of soccer for children and teenagers between the ages of 5 and 19 years old and to encourage the healthy development of youth players, coaches, referees, and administrators.
