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SMU Ranked Second in College Soccer News.com Preseason Poll
Mustangs Coming Off College Cup Semifinal Appearance
July 26, 2006

DALLAS (SMU) - The SMU men's soccer team is ranked second by CollegeSoccerNews.com in the first of many preseason polls prior to the fall soccer season. Entering his 23rd season as head coach at SMU, Schellas Hyndman returns eight starters from last year's squad that finished the 2005 campaign with a 14-6-3 record after earning the program's second-ever College Cup berth.

SMU opens the 2006 regular season on Friday, Aug. 25 vs. Wisconsin at the Golden Hurricane Classic in Tulsa, Okla.

2006 College Soccer News Preseason Top 30 National Poll

1. Maryland
2. SMU
3. North Carolina
4. Connecticut
5. Penn State
6. Virginia
7. Akron
8. UCLA
9. New Mexico
10. Creighton
11. South Florida
12. Duke
13. Indiana
14. California
15. Clemson
16. Notre Dame
17. St. John's
18. UNC-Greensboro
19. Wake Forest
20. Old Dominion
21. UC Santa Barbara
22. San Francisco
23. Cal State Northridge
24. San Diego State
25. Virginia Tech
26. Santa Clara
27. St. Louis
28. Wisconsin-Milwaukee
29. South Carolina
30. Ohio State

This post seems oddly familiar

Oops. You have to forgive me for not seeing the earlier thread. The coffee in my office ran out, and I drank some of my boss's unleaded (decaf). So my brain, apparently, was stuck in neutral.

any guesses on preseason all-americans? i think needham would be my only secure bet; with guarda, da silva, gonzales being semi-surprises

I bet we have none. Needham might get honorable mention votes, depending on which list you're looking at (and the NSCAA list is the only one that matters), but he won't get preseason All-America. The other guys are very gifted, but they're young. This group, as much as any in recent memory, is a great example of a team being better than its parts.

I noticed that we are playing six top 30 teams this year. 3 at home (Indiana, South Carolina and Cal), 2 on the road (St. Louis, NM), one on a neutral site (Wisc. MW). Schellas definitely is not ducking the tough teams. Wisc. Mw is our second game. Cal is early on as well. This will be a good test for our team prior to conference play and NCAA play. Barring injury or late no shows - we should be ready for the Soccer Cup again.

The Cal game is most intriguing to me, as the Bears are coached by former SMU All-America defender and assistant coach Kevin Grimes. Nobody knows Coach Hyndman and his coaching style better than Grimes.

EastStang wrote:I noticed that we are playing six top 30 teams this year. 3 at home (Indiana, South Carolina and Cal), 2 on the road (St. Louis, NM), one on a neutral site (Wisc. MW). Schellas definitely is not ducking the tough teams. Wisc. Mw is our second game. Cal is early on as well. This will be a good test for our team prior to conference play and NCAA play. Barring injury or late no shows - we should be ready for the Soccer Cup again.

Playing a tough schedule and being fairly successful is the way we have gotten NCAA tournament invites in the past where we lost in the conference tournament and did not get the automatic bid.

Great news on the ranking! Lets hope they can go even further than last season!

giacfsp wrote:I bet we have none. Needham might get honorable mention votes, depending on which list you're looking at (and the NSCAA list is the only one that matters), but he won't get preseason All-America. The other guys are very gifted, but they're young. This group, as much as any in recent memory, is a great example of a team being better than its parts.

Any idea when the NSCAA ranking comes out?