BOSTON – Winner of the last two America East men’s soccer titles, New Hampshire has been selected the league’s preseason favorite for the spring, 2021 season per the preseason coaches’ poll was unveiled on Wednesday afternoon.
UNH, winner of the 2019 #AEMSOC regular-season and tournament titles, earned seven of a possible eight first-place votes and 67 points. Vermont, a co-regular-season champion in 2019 along with UNH, was second with 52 points while UAlbany, which earned the final two first-place votes and 48 points was third. League newcomer NJIT, which won the ASUN crowns last year, was fourth with 40 points. Here is the full poll:
Spring 2021 America East Men’s SoccerPreseason Poll
No. School Points (1st Place Votes)
1. New Hampshire 63 (7)
2. Vermont 52
3. UAlbany 48 (2)
4. NJIT 40
5. Hartford 37
6. UMass Lowell 34
7. UMBC 25
8. Stony Brook 14
9. Binghamton 11
UAlbany’s Austin DaSilva, the 2019 #AEMSOC Striker of the Year who was named to the Hermann Trophy preseason watch list this season, headlines the league’s top returnees along with 2019 #AEMSOC Goalkeeper of the Year Alejandro Robles (New Hampshire).
UMBC will be the first team in action as they kick off their season this Saturday, Feb. 13 at home against George Washington. Conference play begins on Feb. 26 as teams are scheduled to play a total of six league games. The nine teams will be broken into three pods and play each team within its pod twice plus two additional matches. Due to COVID-19 schedules are subject to change. Full 2021 #AEMSOC Schedule
Each pod champion plus one wildcard team will qualify for the Spring 2021 America East Men’s Soccer Championship, which will be held at tournament's top seed. The semifinals take place on April 15 and the championship tilt on April 17. The league champion will earn the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, where 16 #AEMSOC teams have reached the NCAA second round in the last 19 years, two have earned at-large berths, three have reached the Sweet Sixteen in the last five seasons and UMBC made it all the way to the College Cup in 2014.
Fans will once again be able to watch the majority of #AEMSOC this season. Select games will air on The AE on ESPN while others will air on AmericaEast.TV. Those games will be available on computers, OTT devices and the brand new America East app, which is available on all IOS and Android devices and can be found by searching ‘America East Conference’ in app stores.
Follow the @AEDigitalNet Twitter account to stay up-to-date on America East women’s lacrosse news all season long and use #AEMSOC to join the conversation.
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