SEASON PREVIEW (VIDEO)
FRISCO, Texas – Stephen F. Austin has been picked to win the 2014 Southland Conference soccer regular-season championship in polls conducted by the league’s coaches and sports information directors, the conference office announced Thursday.
The Ladyjacks are coming off a season in which they posted a 10-1-1 conference record and finished 16-3-3 overall, claiming their third consecutive regular season title. Stephen F. Austin returns eight starters to a team that won its eighth overall league crown, the most by any program in Southland history. SFA received 11 first-place votes from the coaches and nine first-place nods from the SIDs to earn a total of 121 points in the coaches’ poll and 119 in the SID poll. Last season, the Ladyjack defense led the league in goals allowed (12) and shutouts (14) while offense ranked fourth in goals (44) and assists (28).
Southeastern Louisiana, which defeated the Ladyjacks in the conference tournament championship, was picked second by both the coaches and SIDs and received one first-place vote from the coaches and the final three first-place votes from the SIDs. The Lady Lions finished 14-4-5 last season with an 8-2-2 record in conference play to finish third. Southeastern received 110 total points from the coaches and 111 from SIDs.
In the coaches’ poll Sam Houston State (89 points) was picked third followed by Abilene Christian (71) fourth and Nicholls (69) fifth. The SIDs slated the Colonels (89) third followed by the Bearkats (87) and Wildcats (77), respectively. Central Arkansas, which earned 69 points from the coaches and 67 points from the SIDs, was tabbed sixth in both polls.
Houston Baptist earned 62 points from the coaches to land in the seventh position followed by Lamar with 62 points, Northwestern State with 55 points and UIW with 31 points to round out the top 10. McNeese State was tabbed 11th with 30 points while Texas A&M-Corpus Christi picked up 14 points to finish 12th in the coaches’ voting.
Northwestern was tabbed seventh in the SID poll with 60 points followed by Lamar in eighth with 56 points. HBU garnered 43 points from the SIDs to place ninth followed by McNeese with 36 points. UIW received 30 points to come in 11th place followed by A&M-Corpus Christi with 17 points to complete the SID poll.
ACU and UIW are in their second year of transition from Division II and will be ineligible for postseason play.
The 2014 Southland soccer season begins Aug. 22 with conference play beginning Sept. 19. The conference tournament will be held Nov. 6-9 at the Lamar Soccer Complex on the campus of Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas. The championship match will be carried exclusively on ESPN3. In addition, first round and semifinal games of the tournament will be streamed live on the Southland Conference Digital Network, available at
southland.org and on the league’s Apple and Android mobile and tablet apps.