Aug. 8, 2012

Irving, Texas -

Mata, a two-year letterwinner, has started in 36 of 38 career contests, and has netted seven goals and seven assists for 21 points. As a sophomore, Mata was tabbed to the All-C-USA second team, was named to the Top Drawer Soccer Top-20 Players in C-USA list and was a Top Drawer Soccer Team of the Week selection once. He was also honored to the C-USA All-Freshman team in 2010.

"I am very happy for Omar," Head Coach Tom McIntosh said. "He is very deserving of this honor. He is one of the more creative players in the league and we are looking forward to him having a great season."

South Carolina, which shared the regular season championship with UAB last season, was selected as the league's preseason favorite. SMU, which won the tournament title a year ago, was picked to finish second, while UCF rounds out the top three.

"Certainly we'd love to have been picked higher, but we understand that this is a very deep league," McIntosh said. "Conference USA was the third-best league in the country last year. Every game is going to be a challenge as it has been every year we've been in the league, but we are looking forward to getting started and competing again."

2012 Preseason All-Conference USA Team
Anthony Hobbs, FIU
Dylan Asher, Kentucky
Tom Jackson, Marshall
Anthony Virgara, Marshall
Daniel Withrow, Marshall
Liam Collins, Memphis
Mark Sherrod, Memphis
Juan Castillo, SMU
Bradlee Baladez, South Carolina
Omar Mata, Tulsa
Reed Matte, UAB
McKauly Tulloch, UCF
Andrew Quintana, UCF
2012 C-USA Preseason Poll
1. South Carolina
2. SMU
3. UCF
4. UAB
5. Memphis
6. Tulsa
7. Kentucky
8. Marshall
9. FIU