WINTHROP, Mass. – Coming off its third consecutive winning season with at least 10 victories, the Regis College men's soccer team has been picked to finish fourth in the preseason poll, as the voting by the Great Northeast Athletic Conference's 12 coaches was announced Tuesday.
The Pride finished fifth in the GNAC in 2017 with a 6-4-1 league record, part of a 10-8-1 overall mark. Regis upset fourth-seed Mount Ida in the quarterfinals of the 2017 GNAC Tournament, 3-1, before losing to eventual conference champion Saint Joseph's of Maine in the semifinals. It was the fifth time in the last six seasons that the Pride won at least one conference tournament match.
Saint Joseph's, ranked 25th in the US Soccer Coaches national preseason poll, received 11 of 12 first place votes to emerge as the preseason favorite with 142 points. Johnson & Wales, coming off a 15-2-2 season last year, ended up as the coaches' second choice with 131 points.
Norwich received the other first place vote as it finished third in the poll with 115 points after advancing to the championship match of last season's conference tournament. The Pride collected 101 points to finish in fourth place, ahead of fifth place Suffolk with 94 points.
Conference newcomer Colby-Sawyer finished in sixth place in the voting with 85 points, followed by seventh place Emmanuel with 74 points and eighth place Albertus Magnus with 68 points. Anna Maria ended up in ninth place with 39 points, just ahead of 10th place Rivier (38 points) and 11th place Lasell (32 points). Saint Joseph (Conn.), in 12th place with 17 points, will field a men's soccer team for the first time after becoming a coeducational institution.
The Regis College men's soccer team opens the 2018 season at Lesley Sunday, Sept. 2, starting at 12 p.m., with the home opener coming three days later against Eastern Nazarene Wednesday, Sept. 5, at 4 p.m. After starting the conference schedule with five straight road matches, the Pride's first home GNAC contest takes place Wednesday, Sept. 26, against Suffolk beginning at 4 p.m.