The Southern Illinois University Edwardsville women’s soccer team was chosen to finish third in the Ohio Valley Conference this season based on this year’s conference poll of head coaches and sports information personnel.
Photo courtesy of SIUE Sports Information
“I think it’s a fair spot considering how we finished last season, which is basically all you can go on from year to year when you are a coach trying to predict how teams will fare,” said Head Coach Derek Burton.
SIUE finished with 151 total points and two first place votes. Morehead State was chosen to win the conference, receiving 192 total points and 12 first-place votes, and the University of Tennessee Martin was chosen to finish second, receiving 187 total points and eight first-place votes.
The top six teams in the conference at the end of the season continue into postseason play.
“It is nice to have moved up a couple spots in the opinion of the coaches, but we try not to ever put too much stock into a preseason prediction on how things shake out at the end of the season,” said Burton. “Right now we’re just focused on the next training session and improving ourselves everyday.”
The Cougars were chosen to finish fifth in 2013, and ended up finishing fourth in the conference. The squad went on to compete in the OVC tournament, falling to UT Martin in the semifinals. They finished last season 13-5-3, with a 6-3-1 OVC record.
The team travels to Loyola-Chicago and Western Illinois for exhibition matches on Aug. 14 and 16, respectively. The Cougars open the regular season at home on Aug. 22 against the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Preseason Poll:
- Morehead State (12 first-place votes) – 192
- UT Martin (Eight first-place votes) – 187
- SIUE (Two first-place votes) – 151
- Southeast Missouri – 150
- Austin Peay – 114
- Eastern Illinois – 101
- Belmont – 96
- Eastern Kentucky – 84
- Murray State – 62
- Jacksonville State – 48
- Tennessee Tech – 25
