EVANSVILLE - Sophomore Ethan Garvey and junior Evan Dekker were the top selections for their sides in the 2020 Purple and White Scrimmage Draft held on Wednesday morning.

Garvey was selected by Purple team coach Robbe Tarver and Dekker was picked by White team coach Eoin Hurley.

After earning MVC all-freshman team honors last season, sophomore defender Ethan Garvey has cemented his spot as a staple in the Aces' XI, showing so with his top selection for Coach Tarver's purple team.

"It means a lot. All semester the whole team has been working really hard and I think we've really improved as a group and getting used to each other, so it means alot that my coaches think highly of me and see that Ive been working hard like everyone else," said Garvey on being Coach Tarver's first selection for the purple team.

Garvey is joined by 14 other Aces on the purple squad, including goalkeepers Matt Bryant and Alex McDonald.



"You want to build a team back-to-front, so hopefully we're strong through the spine and then have guys out on the wing that can score some goals," said Coach Tarver on how he assembled his squad for the scrimmage. "I think we have a good team back-to-front and you can't really go wrong with this team."

In his first year with the Aces, junior transfer Evan Dekker has already made quite the impression on Evansville's coaching staff, earning the top spot on Coach Hurley's squad.

"It's definitely a really good feeling," mentioned Dekker on being the first pick of Coach Hurley's white squad. "We have a really good team this year; a really deep squad as well. I don't think anybody's going to complain about being the first pick. I feel good about it."

Dekker is joined on the white squad by five fellow international players, including three Frenchmen in Nicolas Likulia, Baptiste Fousse, and Karl Mbouombouo.



"You look at it from the guys' perspective and they've all come in and trained extremely hard...so it will be good to get back out there and do some coaching finally," said Hurley on the opportunity to play in a game-like environment.

The Purple & White Scrimmage is scheduled to kick-off at 2 PM on Sunday, November 1 on The Valley on ESPN.
 

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