Preseason Poll Finds Men's Soccer to Finish Fifth
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. (August 11, 2014) -- After finishing the 2013 season with an 8-10-1 record, the John Brown men's soccer team has been picked to finish fifth, according to voting by the league's coaches in the annual preseason poll announced Monday by the league office.
Science and Arts is expected to again be the team to beat when the 2014 Sooner Athletic Conference men's soccer season begins. The Drovers, who finished 2013 with a 15-5 record and is a six-time winner of the SAC tournament, finished with eight-of-10 first-place votes and 89 points. Wayland Baptist, last year's regular-season runner-up, finished second with 76 points and one first-place vote.
Texas Wesleyan was picked third with 67 points, Southwestern Christian fourth (56), and John Brown and Oklahoma City tied for fifth with 55 points apiece. St. Gregory's (52), Mid-America Christian (40), Oklahoma Baptist (32) and Southwestern Assemblies of God (18) rounded out the poll.
The Golden Eagles return its three top point-producers from last season, including seniors Martin Gonzalez and Ryan Duncan while junior Eli Simonsen will gear up for his third season of play. Gonzalez (10 goals) and Duncan (11 goals) each recorded 25 points last season to lead the squad while Simonsen tallied a team leading 12 assists to finish with 22 points. Gonzalez was named an All-Conference first teamer while Simonsen earned a spot on the second team.
The 2014 SAC soccer season begins Aug. 22, with 10 teams scheduled to compete. SAC teams will use a double round-robin scheduling model, in which each team plays a home and away match against each of the other teams.
The SAC champion is determined by league's post-season tournament which is set to begin Nov. 8. The top eight teams in the final conference standings qualify for the tournament with the winner earning the SAC's automatic qualification into the NAIA National Championships, beginning Nov. 22.
The SAC Preseason Coaches’ Poll
No. | Team | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | Total |
1. | Science and Arts | 8 | 1 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 89 |
2. | Wayland Baptist | 1 | 4 | 3 |
| 1 |
|
|
|
| 76 |
3. | Texas Wesleyan |
| 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 |
|
|
|
| 67 |
4. | Southwestern Christian |
| 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 1 | 56 |
5. | John Brown | 1 | 1 |
|
| 3 | 3 |
| 1 |
| 55 |
| Oklahoma City |
|
| 1 | 4 |
| 3 | 1 |
|
| 55 |
7. | St. Gregory's |
| 1 | 2 |
| 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| 52 |
8. | Mid-America Christian |
|
|
| 1 | 2 |
| 3 | 3 |
| 40 |
9. | Oklahoma Baptist. |
|
|
|
| 1 | 3 | 5 |
|
| 32 |
10. | Southwestern Assemblies of God |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 9 | 18 |
