INDIANAPOLIS – For the first time, Bellarmine University has been chosen to win the Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) Men’s Soccer Championship, it was announced by the league office Wednesday. The Conference's preseason poll reflects the opinions of the 16 GLVC head coaches, who awarded the Knights nine 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 based on 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 Men’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 Knights, who finished the 2018 campaign with a 12-5-2 overall record and a 9-3-1 mark in GLVC action to earn the No. 2 seed in the postseason event, advanced to the final match but came up short in a penalty kick shootout against Maryville. Bellarmine collected 210 total points for the top spot in the GLVC Men's Soccer Preseason Poll and was receiving votes last week in the United Soccer Coaches NCAA Division II Preseason Rankings. The team returns to the pitch under the direction of 22nd-year mentor, Tim Chastonay, who led his squad to a tie of both the most overall wins and conference victories in program history, returns the GLVC Defensive Player of the Year Jonas Skulstad and two other All-GLVC first-team honorees in senior forward Tomas Bernedo and junior midfielder Micah Linscott.
Defending GLVC Champion, Maryville University, picked up two first-place votes and 195 points to be ranked second in the preseason while also receiving votes in last week’s United Soccer Coaches Preseason Poll. In 2018, after a 10-5-5 overall mark and an 8-3-2 GLVC record, the fourth-seeded Saints won the program’s first league crown with a 4-2 advantage in penalty kicks over Bellarmine, following a 2-2 draw through 110 minutes of action. That result netted them the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Midwest Regional for the second time. Fourth-year head coach David Korn will have five returning All-GLVC honorees in the 2019 lineup, including first-team selection senior forward Helmut Florencia, second-team junior midfielder JD Sohn, and third-teamers Gavino Carranza, Zulfikar Karimi, and Iwan Webster.
University of Indianapolis (194) was just one point shy of Maryville, as it comes in at No. 3 in the preseason. John Higgins will be at the helm for his 10th year in 2019 after leading his 2018 Greyhounds to 12-4-2 and 8-4-1 records respectively overall and in the Conference. Back on the pitch for UIndy will be 2018 co-Freshman of the Year Alejandro Steinwascher, along with older brother Javier, who both earned All-GLVC recognition a year ago.
University of Southern Indiana (189) earned the No. 4 spot in the poll and the other five first-place votes after a 2018 season that saw the squad win the GLVC Regular Season title with an 11-1-1 mark and top seed in the championship event, while earning an at-large berth as the 2-seed to the NCAA Tournament and hosting duties for the regional. In his 10th season on the sidelines, the 2018 GLVC Coach of the Year, Mat Santoro, will bring back reigning GLVC and D2CCA Midwest Region Player of the Year, Sean Rickey, and two other All-GLVC picks. The Screaming Eagles also earned votes outside the United Soccer Coaches Preseason Poll a week ago.
Rockhurst University rounded out the top-five with 170 points, and University of Illinois Springfield took the sixth spot with 157 points. McKendree University earned 138 points and seventh place, while league newcomer Lindenwood completed the top-half of the poll in eighth place with 128 points. Quincy University (108) and Lewis University (106) registered ninth and 10th, respectively, and University of Missouri-St. Louis (96) and Drury University (77) came in at No. 11 and 12. Missouri S&T (58) was 13th, Truman State University placed 14th, William Jewell College (29) was No. 15, and first-year league member Southwest Baptist University (17) finalized the poll at No. 16.
Be sure to follow @GLVCsports on Twitter and Instagram – hashtag #GLVCmsoc – 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 MEN’S SOCCER PRESEASON POLL
| Rank |
School |
Points (1st-Place Votes) |
| 1. |
Bellarmine |
210 (9) |
| 2. |
Maryville |
195 (2) |
| 3. |
Indianapolis |
194 |
| 4. |
Southern Indiana |
189 (5) |
| 5. |
Rockhurst |
170 |
| 6. |
Illinois Springfield |
157 |
| 7. |
McKendree |
138 |
| 8. |
Lindenwood |
128 |
| 9. |
Quincy |
108 |
| 10. |
Lewis |
106 |
| 11. |
Missouri-St. Louis |
96 |
| 12. |
Drury |
77 |
| 13. |
Missouri S&T |
58 |
| 14. |
Truman State |
48 |
| 15. |
William Jewell |
29 |
| 16. |
Southwest Baptist |
17 |