NEWPORT NEWS, Va. – Fordham, last year’s Atlantic 10 Conference Champion, has been selected as the men’s soccer preseason favorite for the 2021 season. The league announced the annual Preseason Poll and Preseason All-Conference team Friday ahead of the start of the season on Thursday, August 26.
 
The Rams were chosen first in the poll with 155 total points and six first-place votes. Fordham finished the 2020-21 season with a 3-0-2 record in conference play and league-best 7-1-2 overall to win the North Division and place third overall. The Rams beat Saint Louis and George Washington to win the A-10 Championship last April.  Graduate students Matt Sloan and Luke McNamara were both named to the 2021 Preseason All-Conference Team. McNamara was an All-Conference selection at the conclusion of the 2020-21 season.
 
Saint Louis was picked to finish second with three first-place votes and 148 total points. The Billikens finished in second place in the West Division last season with a 4-2 A-10 record and a 9-5 overall record. SLU placed four on the Preseason All-Conference Team, the most of any team. Juniors Simon Becher and John Klein were named to the preseason team, along with redshirt freshman Christian Buendia and sophomore Kipp Keller. Becher, Klein and Buendia were all named All-Conference in 2020-21. The Billikens also return their starting goalkeeper, 2020-21 A-10 Defensive Player of the Year sophomore Patrick Schulte.
 
Defending regular season champion Dayton had 140 points and two first-place votes in the 2021 poll.  The Flyers were 4-1-1 in league play, winning the West Division, while posting a 4-4-1 overall record. Preseason All-Conference selection senior Kingsford Adjei, the 2020-21 Midfielder of the Year will anchor the Flyers. UD also returns 2020-21 All-Conference pick senior Elias Harryson.
 
Picked fourth is Massachusetts, which tallied 124 points and returns Preseason All-Conference forwards Filippo Begliardi Ghidini, a graduate student, and sophomore Alec Hughes, the reigning A-10 Rookie of the Year,  as well as senior preseason defender Graham Brenner. Led by Preseason All-Conference pick and redshirt senior Ulrik Edvardsen, VCU was picked fifth with 123 points and two first-place votes. Last year's championship runner-up George Washington was sixth with 98 points and a Preseason All-Conference selection in graduate student Oscar Haynes Brown. Rhode Island was chosen seventh with 94 points and Preseason All-Conference goalkeeper Stefan Schmidt.
 
Davidson (70 points) and La Salle (61 points) are eighth and ninth in the poll respectively while Duquesne and George Mason tied for 10^th with 52 points each. Saint Joseph's and St. Bonaventure rounded out the poll.
 
The 2021 Atlantic 10 men’s soccer season gets underway on Thursday, August 26 with 12 of the 13 teams playing season-opening matches. Conference play begins on Friday, Sept. 17. The semifinals and final of the 2021 Atlantic 10 Championship will be played Nov. 12-14 on the campus of the highest remaining seed following the quarterfinals, which will take place Nov. 6-7 on the campuses of the four highest seeds.
 

---