Millersville's Kyle Loughlin (left) and Mercyhurst's Arash Fahandezh (right).
Lock Haven, Pa. – Mercyhurst, which won the PSAC West title last year, has been chosen as the 2010 PSAC men’s soccer preseason favorite, edging out last year’s PSAC East champion Millersville as the two schools combined to get all but one first place vote in the PSAC men’s soccer preseason poll. Despite a five-vote disparity in first place votes, the Lakers topped the Marauders by just one point in the balloting.
The PSAC will return to a single division format in men’s soccer this year after playing under a two-division format for the last two years. With the return to a single division, it marks the third straight year that there will be a change in the makeup of the PSAC men’s soccer conference. The PSAC last had a single division format in men’s soccer in the 2007 season with one single nine-team division before splitting into two unbalanced divisions in 2008 when both Gannon and Mercyhurst joined the PSAC. After Kutztown dropped men’s soccer following the 2008 season, the divisions were balanced with two five-team divisions last year before returning to a single division this year.
Mercyhurst and Millersville, two teams that participated in the NCAA Tournament last year, were followed by East Stroudsburg and Slippery Rock, which tied for third place in the poll. The Rock, the defending PSAC Tournament champions and the PSAC’s third representative in the NCAA Tournament last year, received the remaining first place vote. California, the PSAC champions of two seasons ago, was picked fifth. Gannon finished sixth while Bloomsburg, which qualified for the PSAC Tournament last year for the first time since 2003, was picked seventh. West Chester, Lock Haven and Shippensburg rounded out the poll.
The Lakers, who edged out Slippery Rock by one game to take the West title last year before later falling to The Rock in both the PSAC and NCAA Tournaments, the PSAC loss coming on penalty kicks. To remain on top of the league, Mercyhurst will need to find replacements for the production of its top three scorers from last year, as Billy Colton, Nicholas Thompson and Paul Neill are all gone after combining for over half (30) of the team’s total goals (49) last year. Thompson and Neill both graduated while Colton is out for the year with an injury. The Lakers’ strength this year appears to be on defense, as three of the team’s four starting defenders return in graduate student Christoph Hampel, who is also the team’s leading returning scorer, junior Eric Steinmetz and senior Tommy Lund. Also returning is starting goalkeeper Diego Gustin, who saw the majority of time in the net last year and compiled a 1.13 goals against average, and defensive midfielder Arash Fahandezh, a returning All-PSAC selection.
Millersville, which did not lose a PSAC East game in the last two seasons, was the PSAC Tournament runner-up for the second straight year last season after racing out to a 17-1 start to the season and rising all the way to a No. 1 national ranking before dropping its final two games in the PSAC Championship game and in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The Marauders look to be strong once again this year as they return their top five scorers from last year, led by PSAC East Player of the Year Kyle Loughlin (13g, 5a) and Pat Baffuto (6g, 5a). Millersville, which has had one of the strongest defenses in the PSAC in recent years, having led the PSAC in goals against average the last two seasons, should also be strong on the backline again this year, as two of its three starting defenders return in senior Jeremy Yoder and junior John Claffey as well as senior goalkeeper Matt Langione.
Listed below is the PSAC men’s soccer preseason coaches’ poll. First place votes are in parenthesis.
1. Mercyhurst (7)
2. Millersville (2)
T3. East Stroudsburg
T3. Slippery Rock (1)
5. California
6. Gannon
7. Bloomsburg
8. West Chester
9. Lock Haven
10. Shippensburg