NEW HAVEN, Conn. (Aug. 26, 2024) - The 2024 Georgian Court Men's Soccer season gets under way next week. The Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) kicked off the campaign with the Preseason Coaches Poll which saw the Lions sitting in seventh place.

Seventh place is where the Lions finished the 2023 season, making the CACC postseason and advancing to the semifinals in the conference tournament. The Lions ended the season at 5-9-5 overall and went 4-4-3 in conference play.

Perennial league powerhouse Post sits atop the preseason poll with 121 points. They received all 11 possible first-place votes. CACC Tournament runners-up Bridgeport sits second with 105 points in the poll and earned the Post coach's first-place vote. Felician and Wilmington tied for third with 98 points while Caldwell rounds out the top-five with 75 points. GCU totaled 62 points.

Georgian Court starts the season on the road against a couple of Northeast-10 opponents in Saint Michael's and Bentley. Game one is next Thursday, Sept. 5 at Saint Michael's, while the Lions will play against Bentley Saturday, the 7th, also in Colchester, VT. The Lions first home game is scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 11 against St. Thomas Aquinas. They'll host senior day Monday, Sept. 16 against Staten Island. The first CACC game is at Jefferson Wednesday, Sept. 18. 

In a scheduling quirk, the Lions are on the road for seven of their first nine games of the season. They'll then play home in six of the final nine, including a stretch of six home dates in a seven game span Oct. 5-Oct. 30 kicking off with homecoming against Bridgeport Oct. 5. Additionally, the top teams in the CACC preseason poll all visit GCU with the Lions hosting each of the top-four teams in the poll. 

The Lions return plenty of veteran leadership with eight of the 12 who started the most games in 2023 suiting back up in 2024. Double-digit point scorer, Gijs van Eif, who scored 10 points in 12 games is the leading scorer to return. The defense should also be formidable with returners Alessandro Cavallini, Sebastian Derflinger, Oscar Jannesson and Ryan Lee who started a combined 64 games last year all coming back. GCU also welcomes back for his graduate season goalkeeper Sotirios Gkosdis who started 15 games in 2022 and made 88 saves. His 1.33 career goals-against average is the best in team history. 

2024 CACC MEN'S SOCCER PRESEASON COACHES POLL
1. Post University 121 (11)
2. University of Bridgeport 105 (1)
T3. Felician University 98
T3. Wilmington University 98
5. Caldwell University 75
6. Thomas Jefferson University 65
7. Georgian Court University 62
8. Holy Family University 57
9. Goldey-Beacom College 37
10. Chestnut Hill College 33
11. Dominican University 29
12. Bloomfield College 12