GREENWOOD, IN – Transylvania University’s men’s soccer team has been selected as the front runner to win the 2011 Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference championship. The Pioneers received seven first-place votes and 94 total points in a poll of the conference’s ten head coaches.

Anderson will look to dethrone the defending champs and capture the school’s first men’s soccer title since 2004, as the Ravens totaled 82 points and two first place votes.  Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology placed third in the poll with 77 points.  Franklin College finished fourth with 68 points and was followed by Earlham College (66 points, one first place vote), Manchester College (51), College of Mount St. Joseph (31), Defiance College (30), Hanover College (30), and Bluffton University (21).

Transylvania is coming off a 16-3-2 record in 2010.  The Pioneers claimed their sixth HCAC title last fall with an 8-0-1 record, and defeated Anderson in the conference tournament final 2-0.  Transy fell in the opening round of the NCAA Division III Tournament, dropping a 3-1 decision to Lynchburg.  Transylvania led the HCAC in goals (48) and goals allowed (19) last season.

The Pioneers return a pair of First-Team All-HCAC selections from their 2010 team, but graduated the conference’s Offensive and Defensive Most Valuable Players.  Senior midfielder Peter Mikhail (Park Hills, Ky./Covington Catholic) and sophomore midfielder Kyle Smith (Cincinnati, Ohio/LaSalle) will look to pace the Pioneers after losing Brian Williams and Zach Lange.  Smith, the HCAC Co-Freshman of the Year, ranked second on the squad with six goals and four assists last fall, while Mikhail added four goals and an assist.

Anderson will try and capture a conference title for the first time since 2004.  The Ravens finished second in the conference race last fall with a 6-1-2 record (9-6-6 overall) and fell to Transy in the HCAC tournament title.  AU returns four First-Team All-HCAC members from last year’s squad, including Co-Freshman of the Year Austin Howard (Lima, Ohio/Shawnee).  Howard, a sophomore goalkeeper for the Ravens, led the HCAC in goals against average (0.63), save percentage (.868), and shutouts (6) as a freshman.  Offensively, senior Austin Fridley (Anderson, Ind./Highland) returns after leading the squad with 13 points scored last season (2 goals & 9 assists).

Rose-Hulman has been selected to finish third after a fifth place finish in 2010.  The Engineers finished the season 8-7-4 overall and 5-2-2 in league play.  Senior forward Clint Vatterrodt (Bloomington, Ill./University) is the lone returning First-Team All-HCAC member from a year ago.  The senior led the HCAC with 25 points scored as a junior and ranked second in the league with 10 goals.

The 2011 men’s soccer season is set to begin on September 1.

Players to Watch

Follow the HCAC on Twitter and Facebook throughout the 2011 season!

Twitter: www.twitter.com/HCACDIII                   Facebook: www.facebook.com/HCACDIII