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MURFREESBORO – Defending league tournament champion Chowan University has been picked to claim their second Conference Carolinas regular season title in the 2024 men’s soccer preseason coaches’ poll.

The conference office officially unveiled the preseason poll on August 26. The preseason poll was voted on by the league’s head coaches.

“We’re excited to be picked first in the preseason poll, which I think is a testament to our body of work last season,” stated Chris Whalley, Chowan’s head men’s soccer coach. “We won’t be naive though, and understand to achieve our goals for this year we will have to work extremely hard.”

Chowan finished second in the East Division a season ago going 3-1-2 in divisional play and earned the second seed in the conference tournament. Their conference regular season record was 7-2-2 and 8-4-6 overall.

Chowan earned the 10th seed in the NCAA Men’s Soccer Southeast Regional last season.

In the 2024 preseason poll, the Hawks collected 154 points and eight of the 14 first place votes.

2023 tournament runner-up and the league’s Northwest Division champion Converse University was picked second with 151 points and had one first place vote.

Young Harris College (three) and Francis Marion University (two) earned the final five first place votes.

Young Harris, the league’s 2023 Southwest Division champion, is picked to finish third this year with 146 points while the Patriots came in fourth with 139 points. Belmont Abbey College rounded out the top five with 122 points in fifth.

Barton College is picked sixth with 99 points as they are followed by Emmanuel University at seventh with 92 points and Lees-McRae College with 88 points in eighth. The University of Mount Olive, 83 points, and North Greenville University, 76 points, round out the top 10 in ninth and 10th, respectively.

Southern Wesleyan University (44 points), King University (34 points), Erskine College (24 points) and newcomer Shorter University (22 points) rounded out the poll.

The 2024 season gets underway on Thursday, Sept. 5 with conference play beginning Sept. 14. The first two rounds of the conference tournament will take place on campus sites at the higher seeds on Nov. 7 and 10. The semifinals and championship, slated for Nov. 15 and 17, will be played at Bryan Park in Browns Summit, NC.

The following are the 2024 Conference Carolinas men’s soccer players to watch:

Barton

Gabriel Slemer Lopes, Sr., M, São Paulo, Brazil (2023 All-Conference Carolinas second team)

Kai Thurston, So., D, Harleston, England

Dan Ivanov, So., MF, Croydon, England

 

Belmont Abbey

Drew Daunt, Sr., M, Tallahassee, Florida

Pat Hissim, So., D, Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Mikey Reid, Sr., F, Pembroke Pines, Florida

Chowan

Bradley Binns, Jr., M, Pontefract, England (2023 All-Conference Carolinas first team)

Chase Jansen, Jr., GK, Palm Bay, Florida, (2023 All-Conference Carolinas, Conference Carolinas Tournament MVP)

Charlie Birch, Sr., D, Carlisle, England, (2023 All-Conference Carolinas third team)

 

Converse

Gabriel Verona, Sr., D, São Lourenço do Oeste, Santa Catarina, Brazil , (2023 All-Conference Carolinas first team, D2CCA All-Region second team)

Johannes Haden, Sr., F, Stockholm, Sweden, (2023 All-Conference Carolinas second team)

Guilherme Fontes, Jr., F/M, São Paulo, Brazil, (2023 All-Conference third team)

 

Emmanuel

Tomas Pollacchi, Sr., F, San Andres de Giles, Argentina

Matt Fitzer, Sr., F, Newport News, Virginia

Natxo Faus, Sr., GK, Alicante, Spain

 

Erskine

Andreas Aspris, Fr., M, Johannesburg, South Africa

Caleb Drabek, So., M, Savannah, Georgia

Bailey Hall, Jr., F, Cheshire, England

 

Francis Marion

Edorta Cabieces, Sr., F, Bilbao, Spain (2023 All-Conference Carolinas selection, three-time United Soccer Coaches All-Region selection)

David Guevara, Jr., D, Guayaquil, Ecuador

Mario Buelga, Sr., M, Gijon, Spain

 

King

Joe Elliott, Jr., M, Rochester, N.Y.

Pedro Herrera, Sr., M, Cali, Colombia

 

Lees-McRae

Gray Smith, Sr., D, Pinehurst, North Carolina (2023 All-Conference Carolinas second team)

Fletcher Dyson, Sr., M, Aylsham, Norfolk, England

Harrison Watts, Sr., F, Clarksville, Tennessee

 

Mount Olive

Manny Duran, So., M, George Town, Cayman Islands

Axel Engren, Sr., GK, Sundsvall, Sweden (2022 All-Conference Carolinas second team)

Jacques Sousa, Jr., D, Cary, North Carolina

 

North Greenville

Renan Macuglia, Sr,, F, Balneário Camboriú, Brazil (All-Conference Carolinas second team)

Enrico Onzi, Jr., M, Caxias Do Sul, Brazil

Jacob Marino, Fr., D, Miami, Florida

 

Shorter

Charles Garcia, Jr., M, Calhoun, Georgia (2023 GSC Honor Roll)

Miguel Souza, Sr., F, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2023 GSC Honor Roll)

Rasmus Berg, Sr. GK, Odense, Denmark (2023 GSC Honor Roll)

 

Southern Wesleyan

Feren Nuñez, Sr., M, Bronx, New York (2023 All-Conference Carolinas third team)

Alberto Esquivel, Fr., M, San Jose, Costa Rica

Brody Schroeder, So., F, Lawrenceville, Georgia

 

Young Harris

Sacha De Corte, Jr., D, Vlezenbeek, Belgium, (2023 All-Conference Carolinas second team)

Ivar Nå Aga., So., D, Odda, Norway, (2023All-Conference Carolinas third team, All-Southeast Region third team)

Thomas Kleinpenning, So., M, Ulft, Netherlands, (2023 All-Conference Carolinas first team, All-Southeast Region second team)