FREDERICKSBURG, Va. -- Favored to win the conference crown for the first time since 2018, the Christopher Newport men's soccer team garnered three first-place votes and edged out three-time defending champion Mary Washington for the top spot in the Coast-To-Coast Athletic Conference Preseason Coaches Poll. The Captains earned the top spot in the preseason rankings for the fourth time since the inaugural release of the poll in 2014. 

Christopher Newport led the seven-team field with 33 points while the Eagles of Mary Washington picked up 28 points and two first-place votes. UC-Santa Cruz and Wisconsin-Whitewater each earned one first-place vote and finished third, and fourth in the poll, respectively, with 23 and 22 points. Salisbury rounded out the top-five with 21 points while Finlandia and Pratt each picked up 10 points to sit in a tie for sixth in the preseason poll.

The Captains have reached the conference championship match in three of the last four seasons with three regular season titles and one tournament championship in that stretch. The Captains are coming off an impressive first season under head coach Justin Chezem that saw the team post 14 wins and reach the NCAA Tournament Second Round. The team is riding a seven-game unbeaten streak (5-0-2) heading into the 2021 campaign while featuring a bulk of the team that last represented the Royal Blue and Silver in 2019. 

While nearly two years have passed since the Captains took the pitch, the roster remains largely unchanged as Chezem's 2019 squad featured a talented, young roster. In addition to the returning crop, a pair of recruiting classes will also join the fold as CNU looks to contend for another conference crown. Offensively, 2019 leading scorer Lincoln Kickbush is back alongside double-figure scorer Will Collins. Tanner Dail is also back on the attack after garnering 2018 Rookie of the Year plaudits before missing the entire 2019 season due to an injury. 

Defensively, the Captains lost Defensive Player of the Year and All-American Derek Cook in the middle, but will return a pair of fifth-year starters to anchor the back line. Davis Pillow and Daniel Hulett are back after helping post the finest defensive performance in program history during 2019.

This season will be the first played under the Coast-To-Coast Athletic Conference banner with the Captains set to open play on Wednesday, September 1 against Dickinson College. The C2C Men's Soccer Championship will be played in a six-team tournament format over three days from November 4-6 on the campus of Mary Washington. 

 

2021 C2C Men's Soccer Preseason Poll
Rank	Institution	Points (1st)
1.	Christopher Newport	33 (3)
2.	Mary Washington	28 (2)
3.	UC Santa Cruz	23 (1)
4.	Wisconsin-Whitewater	22 (1)
5.	Salisbury	21
t6.	Finlandia	10
t6.	Pratt	10