SUWANEE, Ga. -- In exclusive voting by the league’s head coaches, Trinity University is the unanimous choice to repeat as Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference women’s soccer champions.
Following its third-straight and 11th SCAC Tournament Title in the last 12 years, the Tigers received all eight first-place votes to earned 64 points in the preseason balloting. Trinity, which leads the SCAC with 26 women’s titles, trails only the Tiger men’s tennis program (27) for the most conference crowns in league history.
Southwestern University and Texas Lutheran University each received 52 points from the coaches to finish tied for second in the preseason polling. Southwestern heads into 2023 having won 24 fixtures over the last two seasons, the second-most in the SCAC during that span, while Texas Lutheran advanced to the SCAC Tournament final last year for the first time since 2017. The Bulldogs’ 11 wins a season ago are the most for the program since 2015.
Schreiner University, which secured five SCAC wins last year for the first time since 2017 and returned to the conference semifinals for the first time since 2018, checks in at fourth with 36 points. University of St. Thomas is coming off its most SCAC wins (four) in a single season in program history and rounds out the top five with 31 total points.
Capping off the coaches’ selections were University of Dallas in sixth (27 points), Centenary College in seventh (14 points) and Austin College in ninth (12 points).
Trinity (21-1-2, 14-0-0), ranked ninth in the United Soccer Coaches top 25 preseason rankings, return seven First Team All-SCAC honorees from a squad that advanced to the third round of the NCAA Tournament for the second-straight year. Headlining the returnees are two-time reigning SCAC Defensive Player-of-the-Year, graduate student Bailey Meyer, and the 2022 SCAC Newcomer-of-the-Year, sophomore forward Hanna Khan. Meyer led a Trinity defense last year that allowed just four goals in 24 games and posted an NCAA Division III best goals-against average of 0.165. Offensively, Khan is joined by fellow First Team All-SCAC honoree Michaela Bosco – a duo that combined for an astonishing 83 points last season on 35 goals and 13 assists.
Patrolling the Trinity sidelines for his eighth season will be head coach Dylan Harrison, who in his tenure at the helm of the Tigers’ program has posted an overall mark of 122-13-6 (.887), which includes an impressive 75-1-0 mark in league play and six NCAA Tournament appearances.
The SCAC women’s soccer season begins on Thursday, September 1, with several teams competing in early season tournament competition over the Labor Day weekend. The first conference matches of the season are scheduled for Friday, October 6. The 2023 SCAC Women’s Soccer Tournament will be held in November at Sabercat Stadium in Houston, Texas as semifinal matches will be contested on Friday, November 3rd and the championship match being played on Sunday, November 5th.
| 2023 SCAC Women's Soccer Preseason Coaches' Poll (first-place votes in parentheses, followed by total points) |
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| 1. | Trinity University (8) | 64 |
| 2. | Southwestern University | 52 |
| Texas Lutheran University | 52 | |
| 4. | Schreiner University | 36 |
| 5. | University of St. Thomas | 31 |
| 6. | University of Dallas | 27 |
| 7. | Centenary College | 14 |
| 8. | Austin College | 12 |
