ABILENE – Abilene Christian's women's soccer team, which won 20 matches last year en route to an appearance in the NCAA quarterfinals, will begin its 2012 campaign as the nation's seventh-ranked team according to the
preseason poll released Tuesday by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA).
ACU is the only Lone Star Conference representative to crack the top-25 preseason poll, but is one of three South Central Region schools along with Colorado School of Mines (No. 5), Fort Lewis (No. 10) and Dallas Baptist (No. 15). Midwestern State received votes.
The NCAA realigned the South Central region heading into this year to include the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. The Great American and the MIAA, which were part of the South Central in 2011-12, are now part of the Central Region with the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference.
Ranked ahead of the Wildcats are the defending national champions from Saint Rose followed by Grand Valley State, Armstrong Atlantic State, Chico State, Colorado School of Mines, and California (Pa.).
Dallas Baptist will play host to the Wildcats in the season opener on Aug. 30 and are the only ACU opponent currently ranked. The remainder of ACU's non-conference schedule includes Our Lady of the Lake, Nebraska-Kearney and Missouri-Southern.
The Wildcats' 14-match conference slate begins Sept. 14 at Incarnate Word and concludes Oct. 26 vs. Midwestern State. The Mustangs defeated ACU last year at the conference tournament, but were eliminated a week later by the Wildcats in the second round of the NCAA Championship.
