Men’s Soccer Earns Top 25 Preseason Ranking
(KANSAS CITY, Kan.) – The Carnegie Mellon University men's soccer team will start the 2017 campaign in the national rankings, as they appear 20th in the United Soccer Coaches (formerly the NSCAA) NCAA Division III Preseason Coaches Poll, released last week.
The Tartans finished 2016 with a 13-4-2 record and second-place showing in the University Athletic Association (UAA) which sent five teams to the 2016 NCAA Championship tournament. The Tartans were one of those teams and made the program's second straight appearance on the national stage after holding a ranking as high as 18 during the season. The Tartans won their first round game, 2-1, against Ohio Wesleyan University, marking the program's sixth first-round victory, before falling 1-0 to national runner-up Calvin College in the second round.
The 2017 Tartans return 10 starters from last year's team, welcome nine freshmen, and will kick off the season at Kenyon College on Friday, September 1 at 5:30 p.m.
Four teams on Carnegie Mellon's schedule are in the preseason rankings and all are in the top 10 including non-conference opponents Kenyon College and the University of Redlands. Kenyon will begin the season ranked fifth while the Tartans visit No. 7 Redlands the second week of the season on Friday, September 8.