Go WEST young man (and NORTH)

[Kuiper]

American Rivers Conference released its Men's Soccer Preseason Coaches Poll.  Wartburg edges out Luther in Luther's final season in the conference.

2025 American Rivers Conference
Men's Soccer Preseason Coaches' Poll
Place   Team (First-place votes)   Points
1.   Wartburg (5)   61
2.   Luther (4)   59
3.   Loras   48
4.   Nebraska Wesleyan   46
5.   Simpson   31
T-6.   Central   28
T-6.   Univ. of Dubuque   28
8.   Coe   14
9.   Buena Vista   9

[Kuiper]

Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference released its men's soccer Preseason Coaches Poll.  Eedgewood is tabbed to finish first.

2025 NACC Men's Soccer Preseason Poll

Institution    Points

Edgewood (19)    326
MSOE (4)    306
Dominican (2)    289
Aurora (1)    274
St. Norbert    227
Wisconsin Lutheran    177
Illinois Tech    175
Concordia Wisconsin    169
Benedictine    153
Marian    75
Concordia Chicago    73
Rockford    66
Lakeland    56

Note: First-place votes in parentheses.

[Kuiper]

Another season preview, this time from the Northwest Conference

Lewis & Clark

I can confidently predict that Lewis & Clark will do at least as well as last year.  Of course, I'm not really going out on a limb when I say that.  They were 0-20 last season, 0-19-1 in 2023, and 0-7 in 2022 when they first re-started their team.  They can't be any worse.  There is some reason for optimism though.  This is the first year that they will have some players who are in the fourth year in the program and the first year in which they will have seniors on the team.  So, they have some experience.  It's experience losing . . . A lot of losing . . . but it's experience.  One big change is they elevated the assistant coach to head coach and the head coach of the men's and women's teams is now director of soccer overseeing both.  So, it's possible having a dedicated head coach will help them improve. 

Key Departures:

Was anyone key when a team went 0-20?  Probably not, but goalkeeper Ben Tallent graduated early and he did have more action than almost anyone else not in goal on the team in his three seasons, including a game in 2022 against Whitworth where he was credited with 15 saves (in a 9-1 loss).

Key Returners:

See above.  Probably no one, but they do get back most of their regular starters, including forward Ishan Abraham, who led the team in scoring with 2 goals (which doesn't sound like a lot, but the entire team only scored 7 goals all season). Midfielder Daniel Estoll returns after leading the team in assists with 2.

Freshman:

They bring in 7 recruits.  My guess is some of these players will get significant minutes.

[Kuiper]

Northwest Conference releases the results of its Men's Soccer Preseason Coaches Poll.  No surprise, Pacific Lutheran is predicted to finish first, with Whitman (getting PLU's vote since you can't vote for your own team) and Whitworth close behind.

(Points awarded on an 8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis. Coaches could not vote for their own teams; numbers in parentheses indicate first place votes)

Team  Pts.  2024 NWC Finish

Pacific Lutheran (8)  64  1st

Whitworth   50  4th

Whitman (1)  49  3rd

George Fox  45  2nd

Puget Sound  35  6th

Willamette  30  7th

Pacific (Ore.)  27  5th

Linfield  16  8th

Lewis & Clark  8  9th

[Kuiper]

Trinity University

Trinity was 19-1-3 last season and lost in the third round of the NCAA tournament to Babson 2-0 at Middlebury after dominating Bowdoin 3-0 at home in a reversal of the traditional West travels to East pattern in the tournament.  Throughout the season, the team not only showed formidable offensive prowess, scoring 75 goals and outshooting their opponents 433 to 113, but was as lock-down a defensive unit as you'll find, only conceding 12 goals.  This year, however, Trinity faces some headwinds that might make repeating the 2024 season performance more difficult. 

First, they move from the SCAC to the SAA.  Interestingly, that isn't the downgrade you might think.  In the Massey ratings, the SCAC's overall conference rating was 17th.  The SAA, however, was right behind them at 18th.  The difference is that the SCAC has much better teams at the top than the SAA and the SAA has far fewer teams.  That means Trinity has added more non-conference games, many of which are against the SCAC's and ASC's top teams and strong non-conference opponents such as Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, Christopher Newport, and UC Santa Cruz.  So, they largely replicated the difficulty of the top of the SCAC schedule, while placing most of the really weak opponents they faced last season with better games. The result is a schedule that is probably more difficult than last season overall even though they don't play Colorado College.

Second, Trinity loses at least one of their top offensive pieces and almost all of their best defenders and all of their goalkeepers.  So, they will have some difficulty repeating both their offensive success and their defensive success against a schedule that is, on net, probably harder than last season.

Key Departures:

Biggest individual loss on offense is 1st team All Region X and All SCAC midfielder Hunter Cain, who was second on the team with 12 goals and 2 assists.  I think they have pieces that can, either individually or collectively, replace Cain's goal contributions, though, so I think the biggest losses for the team are on defense (including goalkeeper) and linking/creative midfielders.  They lose the player who appeared to be the heart and soul of the team for many years - 2nd team All American, 1st team All Region and 1st team  All SCAC defender JonConnor Rule.  For a player listed (maybe even slightly generously) at 6'0", he dominated in the air and often made the key interceptions and ignited the attack.  He also had a relentless motor, playing the most minutes by far over anyone on the team.  He's not the only departure, though. Trinity loses a ton of calm, experienced, leaders on the defense besides Rule, including regular starters Will Powell, who led the team with 10 assists from his wingback position, and Ty Jarrett, as well as frequent contributor Tom Whitwell.  In the midfield, they lose 1st team All Region and 1st team All SCAC player Louis Instrall, who played three years after transferring from DI Marshall, starting 57 of 58 games.  They also lose regular starter, Mark Donnelly (All SCAC honorable mention).  At goalkeeper, they not only lose starter and 2nd team All SCAC player Omkar Satpathy, who started 19 games and had eligibility left as well as a year left to graduation, but isn't on the 2025 roster, but also backup goalkeepers Aidan Roy (who played 4 games as a sophomore last season) and Joshua Lynch, who graduated and played 9 games, starting 4 last season.  So, they have zero goalkeepers returning from last season, which is pretty unusual.

Key Returners:

The most important returner is 1st team All Region and 1st team All SCAC midfielder Adam Knutsen, who led the team with 17 goals and 6 assists.  He'll need some help with the scoring load, but junior forwards Samuel Theiss (6g/6a) and Joey Perryman (4g/5a) have shown the ability to propel the offense and should be able to step up.  Other important returners include midfielders Jason Sukow, who had 7 assists in 2024, and
Cade Dougan, who had 6 assists.  I also think Kenyon transfer Alex Ramirez will have a bigger role this year, possibly filling Instrall's role.  On defense, the "Lukes" - Luke Mayfield and Luke Chandler - were both regular starters on defense and will likely step up to a leadership role there.  There are also a number of players who rotated through the outside back positions. 

Transfers:

Jayden Schell started his career at DIII Birmingham Southern (RIP), where he started 12 games, and then moved to DII Spring Hill College, where he played 1 game, before transferring back to DIII to play at Trinity.  He has had some high level USL2 experience over the summer.  I assume he is expected to take over the goalkeeping position. 

Freshman:

If Schell doesn't work out, Trinity will have to rely upon one of the three freshman goalkeepers who are part of the 10 person freshman class, or the one sophomore GK who was recruited in 2024, but wasn't on the roster last season, to man the posts.

[D3Navy]

FYI - the link to Trinity soccer goes to an X post.

Great rundown on the Tiger situation.  THanks!

Trinity University

Trinity was 19-1-3 last season and lost in the third round of the NCAA tournament to Babson 2-0 after dominating Middlebury 3-0 in a reversal of the traditional West travels to East pattern in the tournament.  Throughout the season, the team not only showed formidable offensive prowess, scoring 75 goals and outshooting their opponents 433 to 113, but was as lock-down a defensive unit as you'll find, only conceding 12 goals.  This year, however, Trinity faces some headwinds that might make repeating the 2024 season performance more difficult. 

First, they move from the SCAC to the SAA.  Interestingly, that isn't the downgrade you might think.  In the Massey ratings, the SCAC's overall conference rating was 17th.  The SAA, however, was right behind them at 18th.  The difference is that the SCAC has much better teams at the top than the SAA and the SAA has far fewer teams.  That means Trinity has added more non-conference games, many of which are against the SCAC's and ASC's top teams and strong non-conference opponents such as Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, Christopher Newport, and UC Santa Cruz.  So, they largely replicated the difficulty of the top of the SCAC schedule, while placing most of the really weak opponents they faced last season with better games. The result is a schedule that is probably more difficult than last season overall even though they don't play Colorado College.

Second, Trinity loses at least one of their top offensive pieces and almost all of their best defenders and all of their goalkeepers.  So, they will have some difficulty repeating both their offensive success and their defensive success against a schedule that is, on net, probably harder than last season.

Key Departures:

Biggest individual loss on offense is 1st team All Region X and All SCAC midfielder Hunter Cain, who was second on the team with 12 goals and 2 assists.  I think they have pieces that can, either individually or collectively, replace Cain's goal contributions, though, so I think the biggest losses for the team are on defense (including goalkeeper) and linking/creative midfielders.  They lose the player who appeared to be the heart and soul of the team for many years - 2nd team All American, 1st team All Region and 1st team  All SCAC defender JonConnor Rule.  For a player listed (maybe even slightly generously) at 6'0", he dominated in the air and often made the key interceptions and ignited the attack.  He also had a relentless motor, playing the most minutes by far over anyone on the team.  He's not the only departure, though. Trinity loses a ton of calm, experienced, leaders on the defense besides Rule, including regular starters Will Powell, who led the team with 10 assists from his wingback position, and Ty Jarrett, as well as frequent contributor Tom Whitwell.  In the midfield, they lose 1st team All Region and 1st team All SCAC player Louis Instrall, who played three years after transferring from DI Marshall, starting 57 of 58 games.  They also lose regular starter, Mark Donnelly (All SCAC honorable mention).  At goalkeeper, they not only lose starter and 2nd team All SCAC player Omkar Satpathy, who started 19 games and had eligibility left as well as a year left to graduation, but isn't on the 2025 roster, but also backup goalkeepers Aidan Roy (who played 4 games as a sophomore last season) and Joshua Lynch, who graduated and played 9 games, starting 4 last season.  So, they have zero goalkeepers returning from last season, which is pretty unusual.

Key Returners:

The most important returner is 1st team All Region and 1st team All SCAC midfielder Adam Knutsen, who led the team with 17 goals and 6 assists.  He'll need some help with the scoring load, but junior forwards Samuel Theiss (6g/6a) and Joey Perryman (4g/5a) have shown the ability to propel the offense and should be able to step up.  Other important returners include midfielders Jason Sukow, who had 7 assists in 2024, and
Cade Dougan, who had 6 assists.  I also think Kenyon transfer Alex Ramirez will have a bigger role this year, possibly filling Instrall's role.  On defense, the "Lukes" - Luke Mayfield and Luke Chandler - were both regular starters on defense and will likely step up to a leadership role there.  There are also a number of players who rotated through the outside back positions. 

Transfers:

Jayden Schell started his career at DIII Birmingham Southern (RIP), where he started 12 games, and then moved to DII Spring Hill College, where he played 1 game, before transferring back to DIII to play at Trinity.  He has had some high level USL2 experience over the summer.  I assume he is expected to take over the goalkeeping position. 

Freshman:

If Schell doesn't work out, Trinity will have to rely upon one of the three freshman goalkeepers who are part of the 10 person freshman class, or the one sophomore GK who was recruited in 2024, but wasn't on the roster last season, to man the posts.
 

[Kuiper]

FYI - the link to Trinity soccer goes to an X post.

Great rundown on the Tiger situation.  THanks!

Trinity University

Trinity was 19-1-3 last season and lost in the third round of the NCAA tournament to Babson 2-0 after dominating Middlebury 3-0 in a reversal of the traditional West travels to East pattern in the tournament.  Throughout the season, the team not only showed formidable offensive prowess, scoring 75 goals and outshooting their opponents 433 to 113, but was as lock-down a defensive unit as you'll find, only conceding 12 goals.  This year, however, Trinity faces some headwinds that might make repeating the 2024 season performance more difficult. 

First, they move from the SCAC to the SAA.  Interestingly, that isn't the downgrade you might think.  In the Massey ratings, the SCAC's overall conference rating was 17th.  The SAA, however, was right behind them at 18th.  The difference is that the SCAC has much better teams at the top than the SAA and the SAA has far fewer teams.  That means Trinity has added more non-conference games, many of which are against the SCAC's and ASC's top teams and strong non-conference opponents such as Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, Christopher Newport, and UC Santa Cruz.  So, they largely replicated the difficulty of the top of the SCAC schedule, while placing most of the really weak opponents they faced last season with better games. The result is a schedule that is probably more difficult than last season overall even though they don't play Colorado College.

Second, Trinity loses at least one of their top offensive pieces and almost all of their best defenders and all of their goalkeepers.  So, they will have some difficulty repeating both their offensive success and their defensive success against a schedule that is, on net, probably harder than last season.

Key Departures:

Biggest individual loss on offense is 1st team All Region X and All SCAC midfielder Hunter Cain, who was second on the team with 12 goals and 2 assists.  I think they have pieces that can, either individually or collectively, replace Cain's goal contributions, though, so I think the biggest losses for the team are on defense (including goalkeeper) and linking/creative midfielders.  They lose the player who appeared to be the heart and soul of the team for many years - 2nd team All American, 1st team All Region and 1st team  All SCAC defender JonConnor Rule.  For a player listed (maybe even slightly generously) at 6'0", he dominated in the air and often made the key interceptions and ignited the attack.  He also had a relentless motor, playing the most minutes by far over anyone on the team.  He's not the only departure, though. Trinity loses a ton of calm, experienced, leaders on the defense besides Rule, including regular starters Will Powell, who led the team with 10 assists from his wingback position, and Ty Jarrett, as well as frequent contributor Tom Whitwell.  In the midfield, they lose 1st team All Region and 1st team All SCAC player Louis Instrall, who played three years after transferring from DI Marshall, starting 57 of 58 games.  They also lose regular starter, Mark Donnelly (All SCAC honorable mention).  At goalkeeper, they not only lose starter and 2nd team All SCAC player Omkar Satpathy, who started 19 games and had eligibility left as well as a year left to graduation, but isn't on the 2025 roster, but also backup goalkeepers Aidan Roy (who played 4 games as a sophomore last season) and Joshua Lynch, who graduated and played 9 games, starting 4 last season.  So, they have zero goalkeepers returning from last season, which is pretty unusual.

Key Returners:

The most important returner is 1st team All Region and 1st team All SCAC midfielder Adam Knutsen, who led the team with 17 goals and 6 assists.  He'll need some help with the scoring load, but junior forwards Samuel Theiss (6g/6a) and Joey Perryman (4g/5a) have shown the ability to propel the offense and should be able to step up.  Other important returners include midfielders Jason Sukow, who had 7 assists in 2024, and
Cade Dougan, who had 6 assists.  I also think Kenyon transfer Alex Ramirez will have a bigger role this year, possibly filling Instrall's role.  On defense, the "Lukes" - Luke Mayfield and Luke Chandler - were both regular starters on defense and will likely step up to a leadership role there.  There are also a number of players who rotated through the outside back positions. 

Transfers:

Jayden Schell started his career at DIII Birmingham Southern (RIP), where he started 12 games, and then moved to DII Spring Hill College, where he played 1 game, before transferring back to DIII to play at Trinity.  He has had some high level USL2 experience over the summer.  I assume he is expected to take over the goalkeeping position. 

Freshman:

If Schell doesn't work out, Trinity will have to rely upon one of the three freshman goalkeepers who are part of the 10 person freshman class, or the one sophomore GK who was recruited in 2024, but wasn't on the roster last season, to man the posts.
 

Thanks!  Fixed the link

[Kuiper]

SCIAC releases Preseason Coaches Poll.  Claremont-Mudd-Scripps just edges out Redlands for the top spot, with both receiving 4 first place votes, and Occidental is at third and gets the last first place vote.

2025 SCIAC Men's Soccer Preseason Poll
1. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, 75 points (four first-place votes)
2. Redlands, 73 pts (4)
3. Occidental, 62 pts (1)
4. Chapman, 48 pts
5. La Verne, 37 pts
6. California Lutheran, 34 pts
7. Whittier, 27 pts
8. Caltech, 25 pts
9. Pomona-Pitzer, 24 pts

[Kuiper]

The ASC is down to only 4 teams this season, although it adds teams next year.  Still, a preseason poll seems a little silly, especially when the two top teams tie (Hardin-Simmons and Mary Hardin-Baylor) and 3 of the 4 get first place votes.  It looks odd to have 8 first place votes with 4 teams too, but this is a poll of both coaches and sports information directors.   Someone should have given Howard Payne a pity first place vote though.  Who cares if they were 0-15-4 last season?  Everyone should get an award in the ASC this season.

Nevertheless, they do the poll and vote for a whole bunch of player awards while they do it

2025 ASC Men's Soccer Preseason Poll
Rank    Team (1st votes)    Pts.    2024 Record (ASC)
1.    Hardin-Simmons (4)    26    12-6-2 (6-2)
1.    Mary Hardin-Baylor (3)    26    10-6-3 (7-0-1)
3.    East Texas Baptist (1)    19    8-10-1 (3-4-1)
4.    Howard Payne    9    0-15-4 (0-7-1)

2025 ASC Preseason Players of the Year
Offense: Junior Lopez, MF, So., East Texas Baptist
Defense: Dylan Vadnais, D, Jr., Mary Hardin-Baylor
 
2025 ASC Men's Soccer Players to Watch
Name    Pos.    Cl.    Team    Hometown
Deaven Connelly *    D    Sr.    Howard Payne    Burleson, Texas
Dylan Garcia *    F    Jr.    East Texas Baptist    Clovis, Calif.
Jerron Garcia    CM    Jr.    Hardin-Simmons    Midland, Texas
Junior Lopez * O    MF    So.    East Texas Baptist    Lufkin, Texas
Ryan Lord * DF    GK    So.    East Texas Baptist    Fate, Texas
Karsen Macias *    F    Sr.    Mary Hardin-Baylor    Arlington, Texas
Ethan Mauldin *    F    Sr.    Howard Payne    Weatherford, Texas
Aston Riedel *    D    Sr.    Howard Payne    Rosenburg, Texas
Dylan Vadnais *    D    Jr.    Mary Hardin-Baylor    Comfort, Texas
Daniel Villagomez *    CM    So.    Hardin-Simmons    Waco, Texas
James Webb *    F    So.    Hardin-Simmons    Waco, Texas
 
2024 All-ASC Selection *
2024 ASC Offensive Player of the Year O
2024 ASC Defensive Freshman of the Year DF

[Kuiper]

The UMAC has released its preseason coaches poll.  UW-Superior is the consensus top pick.  I kind of feel bad for Martin Luther, though.  How do you only get 5 points when there are 7 teams total in the conference?  Did someone leave them off their ballot altogether?  Is that a hint?

Complete poll
 
Place   School   Points
1   UW-Superior (6)   36
2   Bethany Lutheran (1)   30
3   Northwestern   25
4   Crown   22
5   North Central   17
6   Minnesota Morris   12
7   Martin Luther   5

[Gray Fox]

The UMAC has released its preseason coaches poll.  UW-Superior is the consensus top pick.  I kind of feel bad for Martin Luther, though.  How do you only get 5 points when there are 7 teams total in the conference?  Did someone leave them off their ballot altogether?  Is that a hint?

Complete poll
 
Place    School    Points
1    UW-Superior (6)    36
2    Bethany Lutheran (1)    30
3    Northwestern    25
4    Crown    22
5    North Central    17
6    Minnesota Morris    12
7    Martin Luther    5

This is correct.  Coaches were not allowed to vote for themselves (even for last place).  So the total should be 147 (21 X 7) (6+5+4+3+2+1=21)

[Ron Boerger]

The SAA coaches' poll selects Trinity(TX) as the preseason favorite, despite the very real losses pointed out in Kuiper's excellent look above at the 2025 edition.

Second ranked Oglethorpe has won 8 of the previous 9 SAA championships, with the 2022 season being the sole exception.  Trinity holds an 18-1 advantage since the teams first played in 1993, but this year's meeting will be the first since 2010.

1 Trinity – 56 (7)
2 Oglethorpe – 48 (1)
3 Rhodes – 45
4 Southwestern – 35
5 Centre – 30
6 Sewanee – 29
7 Berry – 23
8 Millsaps – 14