Marian University men’s soccer has been picked to finish 11th in the NACC preseason poll after receiving 81 votes, as voted on by the head coaches and communications professionals of the conference.

A three-way tie sits atop the conference poll with Aurora, Dominican, and MSOE receiving 307 total points.  The Spartans led the way with 10 first-place votes followed by Dominican with eight and MSOE with seven.  St. Norbert finished in fourth with 254 points and Edgewood was right behind with 226 and the final first-place nod.  Wisconsin Lutheran and Concordia Wisconsin finished closely together with 192 and 183 points, respectively.  Benedictine rounded out the preseason picks for the conference tournament at 143 points.

Illinois Tech wasn’t far behind at 137 and Rockford didn’t finish much off the pace at 128.  Marian then followed the closely bunched trio at 81 points.  Lakeland and Concordia Chicago rounded out the preseason poll at 59 and 42 points, respectively.

The top eight teams qualify for the single-elimination conference tournament with the winner of the postseason tournament earning an automatic bid into the NCAA Divsion III National Tournament.  Aurora and MSOE each claimed a share of the regular season title a season ago with Dominican defeating MSOE in the championship game 1-0 to earn the automatic bid.

The full release from the NACC can be found at https://naccsports.org/.

Marian opens the season at Manchester Friday, August 30 for a 3:30 p.m (ET) kick-off.