INDIANAPOLIS – The McKendree University women's soccer team has been voted to win the 2018 Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) Championship, it was announced by the league office Thursday. The Conference's preseason poll reflects the opinions of the GLVC head coaches, who awarded the Bearcats six of the possible 13 first-place votes, as league policy prohibits coaches from voting for their own team.
The GLVC regular season will feature a 13-match, round-robin schedule with the regular season champion, along with the next seven best teams based on Conference winning percentage, earning a berth to the eight-team GLVC Women’s Soccer Championship Tournament. Seeds 1-4 will host seeds 5-8 on campus Oct. 28 with the winners advancing to the Woehrle Athletic Complex in Jeffersonville, Ind., for the semifinals and finals on Nov. 2 and 4.
The Bearcats, who won the 2017 GLVC Championship, earned 159 total points in the GLVC Women's Soccer Preseason Poll to nab the top spot. Tim Strange leads McKendree into his 20th season after guiding the squad to its second consecutive league title and an appearance in the NCAA Tournament last season. He brings back the 2016 GLVC Player of the Year and 2017 All-GLVC first-team pick, Sydnee Carroll, for her final season along with four other All-GLVC honorees.
Quincy (151) earned five first-place votes in the GLVC poll and will begin the 2018 season as the second pick under new leadership. Head coach Marc Hager will look to build off recent success as an assistant with McKendree, inheriting another successful team that won the league’s regular season title and made an appearance in the NCAA Midwest Region championship match last year. The Hawks will miss the 2017 GLVC Offensive and Defensive Players of the Year but do have First Team All-GLVC senior forward Cassidy Foley returning to the sidelines in addition to nine freshmen looking to make an immediate impact.
Bellarmine returns to the pitch under the direction of fifth-year mentor Chris Tinius as the third pick in the league poll with 149 points and three first-place votes. The Knights went 8-4-7 overall and 6-3-5 in GLVC action in 2017 while also advancing to the second round of the NCAA Midwest Regional.
No. 4 Maryville University (130) and No. 5 Truman State University (117) round out the top-five in the poll, while Rockhurst University (106) and University of Southern Indiana (103) were the other two with 100 or more points in sixth and seventh, respectively. University of Indianapolis earned 81 points for No. 8, while University of Illinois Springfield and Lewis University rounded out the top-10, respectively, with 68 and 56 points. Spots 11 and 12 respectively went to University of Missouri-St. Louis (52) and Drury University (50). No. 13 William Jewell College (38) and No. 14 Missouri S&T (14) completed the list.
Be sure to follow @GLVCsports on Twitter and Instagram – hashtag #GLVCwsoc – and stay tuned for coverage throughout the season on the GLVC Sports Network. Coverage can be seen by logging on to the GLVCSN’s official website,
GLVCSN.com, or on the GLVCSN iOS/Android mobile apps, as well as on the Roku TV, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Android TV OTT platforms.
The complete poll follows below.
| 2018 GLVC WOMEN'S SOCCER PRESEASON POLL |
| Rank |
School |
Points (1st-Place Votes) |
| 1. |
McKendree |
159 (6) |
| 2. |
Quincy |
151 (5) |
| 3. |
Bellarmine |
149 (3) |
| 4. |
Maryville |
130 |
| 5. |
Truman State |
117 |
| 6. |
Rockhurst |
106 |
| 7. |
Southern Indiana |
103 |
| 8. |
Indianapolis |
81 |
| 9. |
Illinois Springfield |
68 |
| 10. |
Lewis |
56 |
| 11. |
Missouri-St. Louis |
52 |
| 12. |
Drury |
50 |
| 13. |
William Jewell |
38 |
| 14. |
Missouri S&T |
14 |