United Athletic Conference

 

NCAA men’s soccer officially returns for 2022 with regular season matches beginning this week. All 10 WAC men’s soccer members are scheduled to compete, with some 18 nonconference contests on the week one schedule.

 

Reigning tournament champion Seattle U was selected as the conference favorite in the 2022 WAC Men’s Soccer Preseason Coaches’ Poll. The Redhawks received eight first-place votes and 80 voting points to enter the 2022 season as the league’s top team according to the conference’s 10 head coaches. Last season’s conference runner-up Grand Canyon received the remaining two first-place votes and placed second in the predicted order of finish with 68 points.

 

Grand Canyon senior forward Shaun Joash was selected as the 2022 WAC Preseason Offensive Player of the Year. Joash was an all-conference first-team choice and was named to the United Soccer Coaches All-Far West Region Second Team in 2021 after scoring nine goals and tallying 22 points for the Lopes.

 

Air Force senior defender London Aghedo was the top vote-getter for 2022 WAC Preseason Defensive Player of the Year. Aghedo was a first-team all-conference choice in each of the past two seasons with the Falcons and notched a goal and five assists over 17 starts in 2021.

 

The WAC is looking to send at least one at-large selection to the NCAA DI Men’s Soccer Championship for the first time since 2018. The league has boasted multiple NCAA tournament qualifiers on six different occasions, with a high watermark of three teams making the field in 1998.

 

WAC men’s soccer members are scheduled to face eight foes who were either ranked or receiving votes in the season’s initial United Soccer Coaches Top 25 poll during opening week. Key matches include Seattle U at No. 4 Notre Dame on Aug. 25, Air Force at No. 15 Wake Forest on Aug. 28, and Utah Valley at No. 5 Oregon State and Seattle U at No. 8 Kentucky on Aug. 29.