Lady Braves Tabbed Seventh In Preseason Soccer Coaches Poll

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Fresh off a season that saw it register a 10-8-1 clip and a sixth place finish in the Peach Belt Conference standings, the UNCP women's soccer team was projected to finish seventh in a preseason poll of the league's 11 head coaches.

The Lady Braves garnered one third place, one fifth place, five sixth place, two seventh place and one eighth place vote to settle in at seventh in the preseason listing, four points behind sixth place Montevallo and a pair of notches in front of eighth place Flagler.

Columbus State, ranked No. 12 in the preseason top 25 by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America, was a unanimous pick to win its sixth consecutive regular season championship, with Armstrong Atlantic (2nd), North Georgia (3rd) and UNCP collecting all the second place votes. The Cougars are 38-2-3 against league opponents in the regular season over the last five seasons.  Head coach Jay Entlich will have to replace some scoring for 2010 with four of his top five scorers gone, but does return preseason all-conference selection Stephanie Parrish who was second on the team with 10 goals last year.

UNCP will return eight starters and six other letterwinners from last year's club, including second team all-PBC and preseason all-conference selection Anna Svensson who led the Black and Gold in scoring last season with 29 points on a team-best 13 goals, as well as a trio of assists. UNCP returns 73 percent of its scoring output last season, as well as eight of its 10 goal scorers in 2009.

The Lady Braves will open up their 2010 campaign on September 2 when Mount Olive rolls into Pembroke for a 4:30 p.m. matchup at Varsity Grounds. Admission to all 2010 UNCP soccer home games is free.

The 2010 coaches poll is below.  Coaches were not permitted to rank their own teams.

For a team-by-team preview of the 2010 season, please click here.