Topic: Marshall soccer picked 2nd in SB poll, UK #1, WVU #3

[chris88]

NEW ORLEANS ? The Sun Belt Conference on Monday announced its 2023 Preseason All-Sun Belt Team, individual awards, and Preseason Coaches Poll. The honors and poll were voted upon by the league?s 10 head coaches.
 
Casper Grening of Kentucky (Soph) was selected as the Sun Belt Conference?s Preseason Offensive Player of the Year. He for the team lead in goals scored (11) and pacing the Wildcats with 78 shots, 33 of which came on goal. 
 
Kentucky sophomore keeper Casper Mols was voted the Sun Belt Conference?s Preseason Defensive Player of the Year. Mols, the 2022 Sun Belt Goalkeeper of the Year. He was 11-1-4 record with only 12 goals allowed. Mols finished his first season in net with 28 saves in 16 matches with seven clean sheets for the Cats. The keeper also earned a spot on the United Soccer Coaches All-America First Team in 2022.
 
Kentucky was selected to finish as the top team in the Sun Belt, receiving six first-place votes. The Wildcats, who are ranked No. 3 in the United Soccer Coaches Preseason rankings, are coming off one of their most successful seasons in program history. Kentucky finished the 2022 campaign with a final ranking of No. 6 after going undefeated in the regular season and making a Sweet 16 appearance. The Wildcats finished their Sun Belt Conference debut 15-1-5, claiming both the regular season title and conference championship.
 
2023 Men?s Soccer Preseason All-Conference Team*
Mathew Bell, Marshall (So., F ? Kingston, Jamaica)
Simon Carlson, Georgia State (Sr., F ? Kennesaw, Ga.)
Lucca Dourado, UCF (Sr., F ? S?o Paulo, Brazil)
Casper Grening, Kentucky (Jr., F ? Roskilde, Denmark)
Andrew Erickson, Kentucky (Sr., M ? San Antonio, Texas)
Eythor Kjartansson, Coastal Carolina (So., M ? Vestmannaeyjar, Iceland)
Alex Karkowiak, James Madison (R-Jr., M ? Guelph, Ontario, Canada)
Gavin Williams, Georgia State (So., M ? Cumming, Ga.)
Morris Duggan, Marshall (Sr., D ? Munich, Germany)
Max Miller, Kentucky (So., D ? Lexington, Ky.)
Anderson Rosa, UCF (Sr., D ? Salvador, Bahia, Brazil)
Capser Mols, Kentucky (So., GK ? Aabenraa, Denmark)
 
2023 Sun Belt Men?s Soccer Pre-Season Poll
1. Kentucky - 93 (6)
2. Marshall - 91 (2)
3. West Virginia - 77 (1)
4. UCF - 68 (1)
5. South Carolina - 49
6. Georgia State - 45
    Coastal Carolina - 45
8. James Madison - 40
9. Old Dominion - 26
10. Georgia Southern - 16

------
My only comments are I think WVU is going to be pretty good as is reflected in poll.  I could see UK, MU, or WVU winning regular season dependent upon how the three teams fare vs each other. The other thing is I think Casper Molls has potential to be a terrific goalie but giving a FR a first team AA nod last year when he had just 28 saves and faced just 40 SOG? That's less than 2 saves per game and 2.5 SOG.

[parshall2marshall]

2 Caspers are their stars ... bunch of ghosts.

[Garbanjo]

I think our striker is gonna be pretty salty about this lol

Hopefully fires him up to kick arse this year

Alvaro Garcia-Pascual

Also, if Okiyoshi plays like he did in the spring he will be all conference as well

[carolinaherdfan]

Even though over the years I enrolled my son in soccer camps and he played youth and high school soccer, I truly did not take the game seriously enough...

It was one of several shortcomings in my life. I chose to begin learning this sport in 2018. It is one of the best decisions I have ever made.
I cannot find the precise equivalence in words to tell anyone how great this sport is, and I'm still learning...💚🦬.