2023 WAC MSOC Release Week 1
2023 SEASON KICKS OFF THURSDAY!
NCAA men’s soccer officially returns for 2023 with regular season matches beginning this week. All nine WAC men’s soccer members are scheduled to compete, with some 17 nonconference contests on the week one schedule.
DEFENDING WAC CHAMPION CBU PREDICTED TO REPEAT
Defending conference tournament champion California Baptist was unanimously chosen as the league preseason favorite in the 2023 WAC Men’s Soccer Preseason Coaches Poll that was released on Aug. 17. California Baptist received the maximum eight first-place votes and 64 voting points based on polling of the WAC’s nine men’s soccer head coaches.
AIR FORCE’S DEWING TABBED THE TOP RETURNING OFFENSIVE PLAYER BY COACHES
Air Force senior forward
Thaddaeus Dewing captured 2023 WAC Preseason Offensive Player of the Year accolades coming off a standout season for the Falcons. Dewing was a first-team all-conference performer representing top-seeded Air Force in 2022, ranking second in the WAC with 11 goals, 26 total points and 1.53 points per match. Dewing added six goals and 16 points across nine conference starts a season ago.
CBU’S BEECHAM, SJSU’S SWEENEY ALSO RECOGNIZED
California Baptist senior defender
Thomas Beecham was voted the 2023 WAC Preseason Defensive Player of the Year by the conference’s head coaches. Beecham was named to the All-WAC First Team and all-tournament team in helping lead CBU to the best goals against average in the conference (0.94) and the second-fewest total goals allowed (20) across all matches involving WAC teams last season. San José State graduate student
David Sweeney was chosen as the 2023 WAC Preseason Goalkeeper of the Year after compiling a 10-5-4 mark and a 0.99 goals against average in 19 starts as a 2022 all-conference second-team choice. Sweeney led all WAC goalkeepers with eight solo shutouts and a 0.42 shutouts per match average last season.
RANKED TEAMS OUT OF THE GATE
WAC men’s soccer members are slated to face six foes who were either ranked or receiving votes in the season’s first United Soccer Coaches Top 25 poll during opening week. Key matches include UTRGV traveling to No. 16 Tulsa (Aug. 27) and No. 19 SMU (Aug. 24), and Grand Canyon hitting the road bound for No. 18 Wake Forest (Aug. 24) and Denver (Aug. 27).