LA GRANDE, Ore. – Cascade Collegiate Conference women’s soccer will have a different look this year with the addition of three new teams but a familiar face has been chosen to win the 2015 campaign.
Northwest University won the conference last year over former powerhouse Concordia and has been named the favorite this season earning 140 points including 10 first-place votes in a poll of the conference head coaches.
The Eagles finished the 2014 season with an 8-0-1 conference record but will have to replace former forward Acacia Johnson who was named Player of the Year and totaled 18 goals last season.
Coming in second in the preseason poll is Corban University who tallied 123 points. Last season the Warriors finished third overall behind Northwest and Concordia.
CCC newcomer Carroll College earned two first-place votes in the poll to finish with 117 points. The Saints ended their 2014 campaign with an overall record of 11-3-5.
For the second year in a row, Southern Oregon (98) is picked to finish fourth in the conference standings followed by Rocky Mountain College (88), who is also entering its first year in the CCC, and in sixth is College of Idaho (87) finishing off the top half of the poll.
Following C of I are Eastern Oregon with 66 points and Warner Pacific with 62 points. The University of Great Falls is the final new team in the conference and was picked to finish ninth with 54 points.
Rounding out the conference are The Evergreen State College (46) in 10
th, Northwest Christian (29) in 11
th, and Oregon Tech (26) in 12
th.
With the added teams, the conference postseason tournament will change to an eight team single-elimination format featuring the top eight point finishers in the regular season standings.
Below are the complete preseason poll results.
2015 CCC Women's Soccer Coaches' Preseason Poll
|
|
Team |
Points |
2014 CCC |
2014 Overall |
|
1 |
Northwest (10) |
140 |
8-0-1 |
11-6-2 |
|
2 |
Corban |
123 |
5-3-1 |
10-7-3 |
|
3 |
Carroll (2) |
117 |
N/A |
13-3-4 |
|
4 |
Southern Oregon |
98 |
4-4-1 |
5-10-2 |
|
5 |
Rocky Mountain |
88 |
N/A |
8-8-2 |
|
6 |
College of Idaho |
87 |
4-2-3 |
7-6-4 |
|
7 |
Eastern Oregon |
66 |
1-5-3 |
3-8-4 |
|
8 |
Warner Pacific |
62 |
4-4-1 |
8-10-2 |
|
9 |
Great Falls |
54 |
N/A |
9-8-2 |
|
10 |
Evergreen |
46 |
3-5-1 |
5-10-1 |
|
11 |
Northwest Christian |
29 |
2-7-0 |
7-11-0 |
|
12 |
Oregon Tech |
26 |
0-7-2 |
5-10-2 |