INDIANAPOLIS – The Truman State University women's soccer team has been chosen to win the 2019 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 Bulldogs five of the possible 15 first-place votes, as league policy prohibits coaches from voting for their own team.
The GLVC regular season will feature a 15-match, round-robin schedule with eight pairs of travel partners. The regular season champion, along with the next seven best teams based on Conference winning percentage will earn a berth to the eight-team GLVC Women’s Soccer Championship Tournament. Seeds 1-4 will host seeds 5-8 on campus Nov. 10 with the winners advancing to the Woehrle Athletic Complex in Jeffersonville, Ind., for the semifinals and finals on Nov. 15 and 17.
The Bulldogs collected 206 total points in the GLVC Women's Soccer Preseason Poll to nab the top spot by just six points. With a 9-3-1 GLVC record last year, Truman won a share of the league’s regular season title and ultimately earned the top seed in the 2018 GLVC Championship Tournament. Reigning GLVC Coach of the Year, Mike Cannon, enters his 27th season as the mentor for this program and will also welcome back a pair of All-GLVC senior honorees in forward Maggie Beem and midfielder Hanna Liljegren.
McKendree University, despite collecting the lion’s share of the first-place votes with six, earned the No. 2 spot in the preseason poll with 200 points. The Bearcats were one of the three teams that shared the 2018 Regular Season Conference crown at 9-3-1, while they also went 13-5-1 overall and were the 2-seed in the postseason event. Although it was knocked out in the quarterfinal round of the GLVC Tournament, McKendree still earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament for its third-straight appearance. Tim Strange leads his team into his 21st season with the help of senior goalie Zoe Brochu, the 2018 GLVC Defensive Player of the Year, along with another All-GLVC pick in second-team senior defender Anna Hanger.
Bellarmine University (187) earned two first-place votes and was only three points behind McKendree to be the third pick in the poll after advancing to the final match of the GLVC Championship Tournament as the No. 5 seed a year ago. The Knights ultimately fell, 1-0, in overtime to 7-seed Rockhurst University but will return a trio of All-GLVC selections in 2019. Second-team junior goalkeeper Elyssa Francis and third-teamers in senior defender Erika Joldrichsen and junior forward Natalie Teo will be guided by head coach Chris Tinius in his sixth season after 11-6-3 and 7-3-3 records overall and in league action, respectively, in 2018.
The next four spots were separated by just eight points, as No. 4 Quincy University (170), No. 5 Rockhurst (169), No. 6 University of Southern Indiana (163), and No. 7 Maryville University (162) followed in the poll. Quincy and Rockhurst respectively return the co-Freshmen of the Year in forward Lauren Crane and midfielder McKenna Leetch, while the Kansas City Hawks also picked up one first-place vote. USI, the other 2018 tri-GLVC Regular Season Champion, collected a first-place vote in the preseason and has a pair of All-GLVC honorees coming back this year. The Saints also return two second-team junior selections in forward Alex Johnson and defender Stacie Muehling.
Lewis University (128) rounds out the top-half of the poll, while league newcomer Lindenwood University earned the other first-place vote and 125 points for the ninth position. At No. 10 comes University of Indianapolis (102) ahead of a three-way tie for No. 11 between University of Illinois Springfield, University of Missouri-St. Louis, and William Jewell College, all with 68 points. Completing the preseason poll respectively in 14th, 15th, and 16th, was Missouri S&T (45), Drury University (39), and first-year league member Southwest Baptist University (20).
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.
2019 GLVC WOMEN’S SOCCER PRESEASON POLL
| Rank |
School |
Points (1st-Place Votes) |
| 1. |
Truman State |
206 (5) |
| 2. |
McKendree |
200 (6) |
| 3. |
Bellarmine |
187 (2) |
| 4. |
Quincy |
170 |
| 5. |
Rockhurst |
169 (1) |
| 6. |
Southern Indiana |
163 (1) |
| 7. |
Maryville |
162 |
| 8. |
Lewis |
128 |
| 9. |
Lindenwood |
125 (1) |
| 10. |
Indianapolis |
102 |
| 11. |
Illinois Springfield |
68 |
| |
Missouri-St. Louis |
68 |
| |
William Jewell |
68 |
| 14. |
Missouri S&T |
45 |
| 15. |
Drury |
39 |
| 16. |
Southwest Baptist |
20 |