Women's Soccer Voted Big South Preseason Women's Soccer Favorite, Gunning Preseason Player of the Year
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Coastal Carolina University’s women’s soccer team has been chosen first in the Big South Conference’s annual preseason poll, as voted by the League’s Head Women’s Soccer Coaches. In addition, the coaches voted Coastal Carolina redshirt-senior midfielder/forward Ashleigh Gunning (Baton Rouge, La.) as the League’s Preseason Player of the Year, it was announced today by the Big South office.
Coastal Carolina, which captured the 2007 regular-season title, received three first-place votes and 90 points out of a possible 100 to win the Conference’s women’s soccer championship in 2008. The Lady Chanticleers have finished first or second in the regular-season standings in head coach Rohan Naraine’s two years at the helm. Coastal Carolina finished ahead of 2007 Tournament champion High Point, which collected three first-place votes and 83 points. Liberty finished third in the voting with 75 points and received one first-place vote, while Charleston Southern was fourth in the poll with 73 points and three first-place votes. Radford totaled 56 points for the fifth spot, just ahead of Winthrop (52 points) and new Big South member Gardner-Webb (50 points). UNC Asheville was eighth in the poll with 32 points, while new Big South member Presbyterian was ninth in the voting with 22 points. VMI finished in the 10th and final position with 17 points.
Gunning, the 2007 Big South Women’s Soccer Player of the Year and First-Team All-Conference selection, garnered five first-place votes and 19 points in the preseason voting. Last season, she helped the Chanticleers to their first regular-season title since 2003 and second overall. An All-Tournament Team selection in 2007, she led the team and the Big South with 15 goals and 39 points and tied for the Conference lead with nine assists. She was ninth in the country in points per game (1.86) and 18th in goals per contest (.714). Gunning was named Third-Team All-Region by Soccerbuzz.com and was an ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA Academic All-America Second-Team honoree in 2007. She also was named to the NSCAA/adidas Scholar All-South Region Second-Team. Gunning had five game-winning goals last year, and scored the game-winning goals in Coastal Carolina’s wins over VMI and Winthrop in the Big South Tournament.
Charleston Southern’s Emma Mattsson was second in the preseason voting with 15 points (two first-place votes), followed by Winthrop’s Dimitra Poulos (eight points, two first-place votes) and High Point’s Sara Rager (seven points, one first-place vote).
The 2008 Big South women’s soccer season begins Friday, Aug. 22 with six games scheduled. The women’s soccer Conference Championship is slated for Thursday-Sunday, Nov. 6-9 at High Point University’s Vert Track & Soccer Stadium. The top eight teams in the final regular-season standings will advance to the tournament. Presbyterian is not eligible for postseason play as part of its transition to Division I.
2008 Big South Conference Preseason Women’s Soccer PollRk Team (first-place votes) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Points
1. Coastal Carolina (3) 30 45 8 7 -- -- -- -- -- -- 90
2. High Point (3) 30 18 -- 35 -- -- -- -- -- -- 83
3. Liberty (1) 10 18 32 7 -- 5 -- 3 -- -- 75
4. Charleston Southern (3) 30 -- 16 14 12 -- -- -- -- 1 73
5. Radford -- -- 8 7 12 25 4 -- -- -- 56
6. Winthrop -- 9 8 -- 6 10 16 3 -- -- 52
7. Gardner-Webb -- -- 8 -- 24 5 8 3 2 -- 50
8. UNC Asheville -- -- -- -- 6 -- 12 9 4 1 32
9. Presbyterian -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 12 8 2 22
10. VMI -- -- -- -- -- 5 -- -- 6 6 17
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