STANFORD, Calif. – Stanford will open up the 2015 season ranked eighth in the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) Preseason Top 25, the organization announced Monday.
The Cardinal’s 422 points place it just behind No. 7 Providence (474 points) and ahead of No. 9 Michigan State (405 points). Stanford also received two first-place votes. No. 1 UCLA (624 points; seven first-place votes) and No. 2 Virginia (617 points; 15 first-place votes) are the only other institutions to earn multiple nods as the nation’s top team.
Georgetown (561 points; one first-place vote), Notre Dame (534 points; one first-place vote) and North Carolina (514 points) round out the top five while Creighton (488 points) sits in sixth.
Stanford’s No. 8 preseason ranking is its highest in 12 years. Coming off a run to the NCAA College Cup Final in 2002, the Cardinal began its 2003 season at No. 3 in the nation. Other preseason rankings since came in 2010 (No. 13) and 2014 (No. 20).
The Cardinal hosts exhibitions against CSU Bakersfield (August 17) and Santa Clara (August 22) before starting the 2015 season on the road at UC Santa Barbara on Friday, August 28. Stanford’s regular-season home opener takes place the following Friday (September 4) against Northeastern at 7 p.m.
Season tickets, mini plans and single-game seats are available by visiting gostanford.com/tickets or calling 800-STANFORD.
Stanford had a historic season in 2014, including the program’s first league title since 2001, a No. 1 NSCAA ranking, its most wins (13) since 2002 and its best winning percentage (.763) since 2001. The team went 13-3-3 overall and 6-1-3 in conference to advance to its second consecutive NCAA Tournament. Stanford has posted back-to-back seasons of double-digit wins for the first time since 2001-02.
Stanford is the only team in the country returning multiple NSCAA/Continental Tire First Team All-Americans in 2015 in forward Jordan Morris and left back and captain Brandon Vincent.
Morris, who has capped five times for the U.S. Men’s National Team, has become the face of college soccer in the past year. In November 2014 he became the first active collegian since 1995 to appear for the USMNT when he came on in the 76th minute in a friendly against Ireland in Dublin. On April 15, 2015 in San Antonio, Texas, Morris started and scored for the United States against Mexico, becoming the first college player to score for the USA since September 1992.
Morris and Vincent are joined by two of the country’s best freshmen from 2014 in Corey Baird and Tomas Hilliard-Arce. Both made Soccer America All-Freshman squads, Baird was on the NSCAA/Continental Tire All-Far West Region Second Team and Hilliard-Arce made that organization’s All-Far West Region Third Team.
The Cardinal, which welcomes the program’s third straight top-15 recruiting class, also returns four of its top five goal scorers and every minute in goal for a team which led the league in goals against average for the first time since 2002.