By Dylan Vazzano, TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – The Ohio Valley Conference has announced its soccer predicted order of finish, as voted on by the league's 11 head coaches and sports information contacts. Behind 151 points in a poll that included three first-place votes for the purple and gold, the Tennessee Tech soccer team was picked to finish third.
"Preseason polls, they're important to a certain extent," head coach Steve Springthorpe said. "I think everybody likes to go into their first game and say 'okay, where do we stack up?' 'where do we think we're going to be?' It's nice that the coaches get a chance to vote on who they feel are the better teams coming into the season, but, at the same time, if you look at where people finished last year at the end of the year and what's coming this year, a lot of it is the same."
Murray State, winners of four straight conference regular-season championships as well as last year's OVC Tournament title, was picked to finish in first in the preseason poll after receiving 15 of a possible 22 first-place votes en route to 194 total points. Eastern Kentucky was selected to finish just ahead of TTU thanks to four first-place votes and 166 total points.
The top-three preseason ranking marks the second time in the last three years in which the Golden Eagles were selected to finish in league's top three after a third-place choice in 2016. Tech was picked to finish fourth last season.
"I'm happy that we're picked in the top four," Springthorpe explained. "That's certainly what we want to do. We always want to be in a position where we'd like to be in the top four teams and I think being third is appropriate based on what we did last year and who is back on our team. So, it's a nice honor, and hopefully we will live up to at least where we were picked."
The Golden Eagles enter 2018 equipped with a three-year run as good as any in school history, punctuated by a historical 2017 campaign. TTU wrapped up last season with a program record for fewest losses in a year with only five defeats all season. Tech's eight goals surrendered, only five of which came in regulation, surpassed the 2016 school record for fewest goals allowed. TTU finished in second place in the regular season and advanced to the OVC Tournament semifinals for the third-straight season.
Overall, Tech's 28 wins over the last three years are the most over a three-year period since the early 2000s, while the club's 18 OVC victories in the past three seasons are the most over a three-year stretch in school history.
The Golden Eagles will host Chattanooga for one final exhibition on Sunday, Aug. 12 at 6 p.m. CT. The regular season kicks off Friday, Aug. 17 at Georgia State, while TTU's regular-season home opener is slated for Aug. 24 against ETSU. Tech's first OVC clash is scheduled for Sept. 14, at home against Jacksonville State.
Admission to all home regular season matches is free of charge.
Photo by Thomas Corhern
