One year after being picked to win the league, the Piedmont College women's soccer team tied for second in the USA South Preseason Coaches Poll released earlier today by the league office in Fayetteville, N.C.
The poll, as voted on by the 13 coaches of women's soccer in the league, had the Lady Lions earning 125 points total while the top spot in the poll went to defending tournament champion Maryville College who took 136 total points and seven of the 13 available 1st place votes.
Piedmont was the only team in the top five of the poll that did not receive a first place vote as Meredith, Methodist, and N.C. Wesleyan accounted for the remaining first place votes. Meredith tied with Piedmont in 2nd place in the poll while Methodist finished in 4th and N.C. Wesleyan placed 5th.
Under the direction of Head Coach Pepe Fernandez who is in his 25th year, Maryville captured the program's first USA South Tournament title last year after finishing the regular season in fourth place. Maryville earned the program's first and, to this point, only regular season USA South championship in 2013.
Covenant College and Greensboro College rounded out the top-half of the poll in sixth and seventh place with 90 and 77 points, respectively. The remainder of the poll saw Averett in 8th place with 68 total points, Ferrum in 9th, LaGrange in 10th, Huntingdon 11th, William Peace 12th, and Mary Baldwin 13th.
The women's soccer regular season gets underway on Tuesday, September 1 as ten out of the 11 Conference teams take on non-League opposition. The Lady Lions will travel as one of the 11 in action on the 1st as Piedmont travels to face Agnes Scott College for a 4:30 p.m. kickoff.
The 2015 USA South Women's Soccer Tournament will be conducted exclusively on campus sites after a six-year stint in Martinsville, Va. The top-eight seeded teams after the conclusion of regular season competition will advance to the tournament. The first round games of the tournament will be held on the campuses of the higher seeded team and will take place on Saturday, Oct. 31. The winners of those contests will travel to the highest-remaining seed for the semifinals and final which will take place Friday-Saturday, Nov. 6-7.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2015/8/329153/womens-soccer-ties-for-2nd-in-usa-south-preseason-coaches-poll