INDIANAPOLIS – Reigning regular-season league champion Trevecca Nazarene will embrace the opportunity to defend its first-place women’s soccer preseason billing in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference.
The new year officially gets underway next week and all 13 Great Midwest institutions will start with a blank slate with their eye on the prize, the conference championship trophy.
A trip to the NCAA Championship Midwest Regional as an automatic qualifier also remains on the line with additional at-large postseason qualification at stake based on the regional rankings.
Davis & Elkins represented the G-MAC in the national tournament, turning heads in the conference championship bracket to eventually prevail against Ursuline for the program’s second trophy in five years.
Preseason favorite Trevecca Nazarene welcomed a new coach in the offseason with the hiring of Kelsey Fenix. Fenix was a former women’s soccer student-athlete at the University of Kentucky and former associate head coach at Lipscomb.
The Trojans will feature a senior-laden lineup with 11 after going 13-5-1 overall and 11-3-0 in the G-MAC schedule during the successful 2016 campaign.
Headlining the TNU returners are the first team all-conference performers Hannah Barney and Sophie Callis. The Trojans are also bringing back three on the all-conference second team with Diana Corzine, Liz Denton and Chelsey Russom. Russom scored eight goals for TNU to rank fifth in the league.
One of the big reasons D&E beat the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in the conference tournament was standout play from keeper Lauren Hill. Hill is entering her junior season and the goals against average (1.21) and wins (17) she has totaled at this point in her career are among the league’s all-time best.
Ursuline is always in the title hunt and the Arrows, along with Davis & Elkins, will both need to replace some serious offensive firepower this season. Ursuline collected 12 wins last year and had possession of the G-MAC Offensive Player and Freshman of the Year (Jill Bohling).
Malone’s Christine Najjar graduated after she was the league leader in goals scored with 13 and tied for the league lead in points with 29. The Pioneers were the conference team leaders in goals, assists and points and pulled an opening-round upset in last year’s G-MAC Championship as the No. 6 seed.
Kentucky Wesleyan had won four of five to finish out the regular season and gave D&E all it could handle in a 1-0 final in the postseason; returners Breigh Haase and Kelsey Humphries each had five goals last season for the Panthers.
Cedarville graduated G-MAC Defensive Player of the Year Hanna Harris and will be boosted offensively by the return of the playmaking Grace Miorelli, who missed all of last season with an injury. The Yellow Jackets also had seven wins a year ago while transitioning under new head coach Jonathan Meade.
Ohio Dominican and Walsh both qualified for the GLIAC Tournament last year while Findlay and Lake Erie also prepare for their first year of conference competition. ODU finished with a 7-7-5 overall record while Walsh went 10-6-4.
Walsh sophomore and 2016 GLIAC Freshman of the Year Olivia Peters is a high-scoring forward to monitor this season. She scored 14 goals (which would have led the G-MAC) and had five assists in her first year with the Cavaliers; her goals scored total ranked fourth overall in the GLIAC.
Alderson Broaddus' Brittany Minor emerged as one of the league's premier goal scorers in 2016; her graduation leaves a big void and will cause some returners to step into a bigger role. Junior Kennedy Rankin is the team's top returning point scorer. Ohio Valley was picked last by the coaches in the preseason poll, but with Luis Rincon at the helm, don’t be surprised with a quick turnaround that he’s been able to pull off with the Fighting Scots men.
This year’s Great Midwest Championship bracket will feature eight teams. The first rounds will be played at the higher seeds before the top remaining seed would host the semifinals and the final.
The start of the regular season gets underway Thursday, Aug. 31. Select conference teams will be streaming home contests on the Great Midwest Digital Network courtesy of Stretch Internet.