STANFORD, Calif. — Stanford men's soccer was placed second in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) preseason poll and Dylan Groeneveld was named to the ACC Preseason Watch List, as announced by the conference office on Thursday.
Decided by the league's 15 head coaches, the Cardinal received a pair of first place votes with 171 points. Returning national runner-up NC State topped the league with eight first-place votes and 183 points. Virginia (161), SMU (146), and Clemson (145) rounded out the top five.
Groeneveld was named as Stanford's representative on the preseason watch list, a list that includes one player from each member institution. A senior captain for the Cardinal, Groeneveld has started each of his last 35 appearances over two seasons, and led a Stanford backline to seven clean sheets in 2025.
Stanford will host two remaining preseason exhibitions against Sacramento State (Aug. 12) and Cal Poly (Aug. 15), before kicking off the regular season at home against #21 Grand Canyon at 4 p.m. on Aug. 20.
2026 ACC Men’s Soccer Preseason Coaches Poll
1. NC State (8), 183
2. Stanford (2), 171
3. Virginia (4), 161
4. SMU, 146
5. Clemson (1), 145
6. North Carolina, 134
7. Duke, 124
8. Notre Dame, 100
9. Wake Forest, 89
10. Syracuse, 86
11. Pitt, 83
12. Virginia Tech, 60
13. California, 48
14. Louisville, 29
15. Boston College, 16
First-place votes in parentheses
2026 ACC Men’s Soccer Preseason Watch List
Andrej Borak, So., GK, Boston College
Florentino Junior, Fr., M, California
Ransford Gyan, Jr., M, Clemson
Ulfur Bjornsson, Sr., F, Duke
Ryan Quintos, Sr., D, Louisville
Joschi Schelb, Sr., F, North Carolina
Tyler Caton, Sr., M, NC State
Nolan Spicer, Sr., M, Notre Dame
Niklas Sørensen, Jr., D, Pitt
Stephan Soghomonian, Jr., F, SMU
Dylan Groeneveld, Sr., D, Stanford
Kelvin Da Costa, Jr., M, Syracuse
Sebastian Pop, Sr., D, Virginia
Yanis Belatrache, Sr., M, Virginia Tech
Jeffrey White, Sr., M, Wake Forest