Bulldogs receive four first-place votes, picked second in SCAC preseason coaches' poll
SEGUIN, Texas -- Texas Lutheran Men's Soccer, the defending champions of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference, received four first-place votes and were picked second in this year's preseason coaches' poll.
The Bulldogs return seven starters and 20 lettermen from the 2019 squad that won a school-record 15 matches. TLU went 15-6 overall and 7-2 in the SCAC regular season.
The Bulldogs, the No. 2 seed in the 2019 SCAC Tournament, defeated tournament host Trinity 2-0 and top seed Colorado College 3-1 to claim the conference title and the conference's automatic berth to the NCAA DIII playoffs.
TLU played Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (Calif.) in the NCAA Division III Men's Soccer Championship (first round) and fell 2-0 to the Stags. CMS advanced to the NCAA DIII third round, falling to eventual national semi-finalist Centre (Ky.).
TLU's 2020-21 season will start Thursday (Feb. 25) with a road match at the University of Dallas. The match starts at 4 p.m. in Irving, Texas at the UD soccer field. TLU will play only conference matches in the 2020-21 season.
This year's conference championship will be contested on April 23 and April 25 at Centenary College in Shreveport, La. Only the top four teams in the conference standings advance to the conference championship tournament.
There is no NCAA Division III Men's Soccer Championship this year. With the health and safety of the division's student-athletes, coaches, athletics administrators and communities as its priority, the Division III Presidents Council made the decision on Aug. 5, 2020 to cancel all fall sport championships due to the COVID-19 pandemic and related administrative and financial challenges.
Trinity University has been selected as the preseason favorite. Tigers, who posted a 12-7-2 record and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the 18th-straight season in 2019, earned four of the nine first-place votes cast by league coaches to finish atop the poll with 71 points.
Colorado College, last year's SCAC regular season champion after posting an 8-1-0 league record and an NCAA Tournament invite for the 20th time in program history, received the final first-place vote to finish third with 67 points.
St. Thomas, coming off its inaugural year in the SCAC and after posting an overall record of 10-6-0, received 62 points to finish fourth. Southwestern, which has posted back-to-back winning seasons for the first time since the 2012-2013 seasons, checks in at fifth with 42 points.
Green, one of just two current student-athletes on the all-anniversary team, has exploded onto the scene in two seasons at the collegiate level. The 2018 SCAC Newcomer of the Year, Green also was named SCAC Offensive Player of the Year in both 2018 and 2019.
Since the award began in 2003, Green is one of just two athletes to earn the distinction of SCAC Offensive Player of the Year in back-to-back seasons.
Through his first two seasons, Green has scored 38 goals (18 in 2018, 20 in 2019) and assisted on five others for 81 points. He led the SCAC in points, points per game, goals and goals scored per game in both his freshman and sophomore seasons.
Green's current average of 0.97 goals scored per game is ranked second all-time in SCAC history and his 2.077 points per game currently sits fifth all-time.
In 2019, Green set new TLU DIII-era records for goals scored (20) and total points (43). TLU has been a member of the NCAA Division III since the 2002-03 academic year.
Green's 20 goals scored and 43 total points (20 goals, 3 assists) were the second-most goals scored and points recorded in a single season in TLU Men's Soccer history.
In just two seasons, Green already ranks fourth on TLU's career list for goals, with 38, and total points, with 81.
TLU Hall of Famer Roger Gomez is the Bulldogs' all-time career leader in both categories, with 62 goals and 137 points scored.
Green already has 11 game-winning goals to his credit.