NEW ORLEANS – The Sun Belt Conference on Monday announced its 2022 Preseason All-Sun Belt Team, individual awards and Preseason Coaches Poll. The honors and poll were voted upon by the league’s 14 head coaches.
South Alabama senior midfielder Gracie Wilson was selected as the Sun Belt Conference’s Preseason Offensive Player of the Year. Wilson, a senior from Conyers, Ga., was the 2021 Sun Belt Player of the Year and the Most Valuable Player of the 2021 Sun Belt Soccer Tournament, scoring the game winning goal in the title tilt. Wilson was a 2021 First-Team CoSIDA Academic All-American. She started all 20 of her appearances last season and led the Jaguars with 11 goals, 10 assists, 32 points and six game-winning goals. She led the Sun Belt in points, points per game and game-winning goals.
South Alabama fifth-year defender Gabrielle Gayle was voted the Sun Belt Conference’s Preseason Defensive Player of the Year. Gayle, a Spanish Town, Jamaica, native, was a First-Team All-Sun Belt selection in 2021. She appeared in 17 matches with 16 starts, clocking 1,401 minutes on the pitch. She contributed to eight shutouts last season, including two at the Sun Belt Tournament. She scored one goal and notched two assists on the year.
Old Dominion was selected to finish as the top team in the Sun Belt’s East Division, receiving 10 first-place votes. The Monarchs, who will be in their first season competing in the Sun Belt, won the 2021 Conference USA Tournament for the first time in program history and earned the program’s second all-time NCAA Tournament appearance. Old Dominion was 13-5-1 in 2021.
South Alabama was chosen to finish as the best team in the Sun Belt’s West Division, earning 12 first-place votes. The Jaguars won the 2021 Sun Belt Tournament, their third consecutive and eighth in the last nine years. South Alabama advanced to the 2021 NCAA Tournament and finished with a 12-5-3 overall record, including a 6-2-2 mark in the Sun Belt.
The 2022 Sun Belt Conference Women’s Soccer Tournament will take place October 31-November 6 in Foley, Ala. It will mark the seventh consecutive year that the event will be contested at the Foley Sports Tourism Complex.
2022 Sun Belt Conference Women’s Soccer Preseason Awards
Preseason Offensive Player of the Year:
Gracie Wilson, South Alabama (Sr., MF, Conyers, Ga.)
Preseason Defensive Player of the Year:
Gabrielle Gayle, South Alabama (Sr., D, Spanish Town, Jamaica)
Preseason All-Sun Belt Team
F – Elis Nemtsov, Georgia Southern (R-So., Bradford, Ontario)
F – Morgan Cross, South Alabama (Sr., Dunfermline, Scotland)
F – Brooklynn Fugel, Georgia State (So., Dacula, Ga.)
F – Aliyah Williamson, Arkansas State (So., Millington, Tenn.)
MF – Gracie Wilson, South Alabama (Sr., Conyers, Ga.)
MF – Karleen Bedre, Louisiana (Sr., Norco, Calif.)
MF – Ilana Izquierdo, Southern Miss (So., Cali, Colombia)
D – Gabrielle Gayle, South Alabama (Sr., Spanish Town, Jamaica)
D – Ruthny Mathurin, Louisiana (So., Gressier, Haiti)
D – Sade Heinrichs, Georgia Southern (Jr., Monchengladbach, Germany)
D – Eva Diez Lois, Georgia State (Sr., Santander, Spain)
GK – Kasey Perry, Old Dominion (Gr., Dayton, Ohio)
* Ties were not broken
2022 Sun Belt Conference Women’s Soccer Preseason Coaches Poll
East Division
Old Dominion – 94 (10)
James Madison – 74 (1)
Georgia State – 72 (3)
Georgia Southern – 62
Coastal Carolina – 39
Marshall – 26
App State – 25
West Division
South Alabama – 96 (12)
Arkansas State – 68 (2)
Southern Miss – 68
ULM – 57
Texas State – 54
Louisiana – 27
Troy – 22
Parentheses indicate first-place votes.