DENVER - Seattle U is the preseason favorite to win the 2016 Western Athletic Conference men's soccer title and Redhawks defender
Kyle Bjornethun and forward
David Olsen were selected as WAC Preseason Defensive and Offensive Player of the Year respectively in a vote of the league's 11 head coaches, who could not vote for their own team or players.
The Redhawks collected nine first place votes and 99 total points to take the top spot. Utah Valley earned the remaining two first place votes to take second with 87 points while 2014 champion UNLC was picked third with 79 points. CSU Bakersfield was selected fourth and San José State edged out Grand Canyon for the fifth spot with the Lopes predicted to finish sixth. Houston Baptist was picked seventh, followed by Air Force, UIW, UMKC and UT Rio Grande Valley.
Bjornethun and Olsen highlighted the Preseason All-WAC squad with midfielder
Sergio Rivas joining his teammates on team. Utah Valley had three players as
Skyler Milne,
Paul Hoffmeister and
Alex Neff all picked up preseason honors. UNLV and San José State each had two players with the Rebels represented by
Danny Musovski and
Richard Garness and the Spartans represented by
Rory Knibbs and
Jonathan Colunga. Grand Canyon's
Amer Sasivarevic rounded out the 11-player squad.
2016 Preseason Men's Soccer Coaches Poll
| Rank |
Team (1st Place) |
Points |
| 1. |
Seattle U (9) |
99 |
| 2. |
Utah Valley (2) |
87 |
| 3. |
UNLV |
79 |
| 4. |
CSU Bakersfield |
68 |
| 5. |
San José State |
59 |
| 6. |
Grand Canyon |
54 |
| 7. |
Houston Baptist |
47 |
| 8. |
Air Force |
41 |
| 9. |
UIW |
34 |
| 10. |
UMKC |
21 |
| 11. |
UT Rio Grande Valley |
16 |
2016 Preseason All-WAC Team
David Olsen, Jr., F, Seattle U
Danny Musovski, Jr., F, UNLV
Skyler Milne, Sr., F, Utah Valley
Rory Knibbs, Sr., F, San José State
Sergio Rivas, So., MF, Seattle U
Paul Hoffmeister, Jr., MF, Utah Valley
Jonathan Colunga, Sr., MF, San José State
Kyle Bjornethun, Sr., D, Seattle U
Alex Neff, Sr., D, Utah Valley
Amer Sasivarevic, Sr., D, Grand Canyon
Richard Garness, Sr., GK, UNLV
Preseason Offensive Player of the Year: David Olsen, Seattle U
Preseason Defensive Player of the Year: Kyle Bjornethun, Seattle U