2018 Sun Belt Men’s Soccer News and Notes:
Standings | Composite Schedule | Stats
AROUND #SUNBELTMSOC
• Sun Belt men’s soccer hits the pitch this weekend to open the 2018 season with eight matches on tap featuring all five teams.
• The Sun Belt is a five-team league this season as Hartwick, an associate member for four seasons (2014-17) winning two regular-season and two tournament titles, reclassified its program to NCAA Division III following the 2017 season. Hartwick had fielded a Division I men’s soccer team since 1973.
• 2017 Sun Belt regular-season and tournament champion Coastal Carolina opens the season ranked 18th in the
United Soccer Coaches NCAA Division I Preseason Rankings, released on Aug. 7. The Chanticleers advanced to the 2017 NCAA Division I Men’s Soccer Championship Round of 16, pulling off a second-round upset at eighth-seeded Clemson before falling in the third round to eventual national champion and ninth-seeded Stanford. The conference’s representative in the NCAA Men’s Soccer Championship has won games in each of the past two seasons – Coastal Carolina in 2016 and 2017.
• The conference’s 2018 rosters are filled with experience with four of five teams boasting double-digit returners – Appalachian State (11), Coastal Carolina (8), Georgia Southern (13), Georgia State (15) and Howard (12).
• The
preseason predictions, as voted on by the league’s five head coaches, tabbed Coastal Carolina as the favorite to capture its third-straight conference crown and Georgia State senior midfielder Hannes Burmeister as Preseason Offensive Player of the Year and Coastal Carolina senior defender Kervin Fadel as Preseason Defensive Player of the Year.
• Joining Burmeister and Fadel as a preseason All-Sun Belt selection, Georgia State junior defender Kyle Clinton enters the season as
one of 31 student-athletes on the 2018 MAC Hermann Trophy Men's Watch List.
• The conference's first men’s soccer weekly awards (Offensive Player and Defensive Player of the Week) will be announced on Tuesday, Aug. 28.
• The 2018 Sun Belt Men’s Soccer Championship is set for Nov. 7-11 at Eagle Field/Erk Park in Statesboro, Ga., hosted by Georgia Southern.
UPCOMING SCHEDULE
Friday, August 24
Bryant at Howard, Noon
Georgia Southern at Virginia Commonwealth, 4:00 p.m.
Appalachian State at Jacksonville, 6:00 p.m.
UCLA at Coastal Carolina, 6:30 p.m.
Georgia State at Central Arkansas, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, August 26
Georgia Southern at Old Dominion, 1:00 p.m.
Appalachian State at North Florida, 6:00 p.m.
Georgetown at Coastal Carolina, 6:30 p.m.
All Times are Central and Subject to Change