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NEW HAVEN, CT - Wilmington University is the preseason favorite to win the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) Men's Soccer regular-season championship, according to balloting released today. The Wildcats received 113 points and four first-place votes to top the poll. Dominican College garnered the most first-place votes with five, but finished second with 107 total points. Four schools picked up at least one first-place nod in voting that was conducted by the league's 11 head coaches.

Caldwell College was picked third with 89 points, while Holy Family University finished fourth with 88 points and one first-place nod. Conference newcomer Philadelphia University was fifth with 72 points and one first-place vote. Philadelphia was a Division I member of the Atlantic Soccer Conference last season. Post University and Nyack College tied for the sixth spot with 59 points. The rest of the poll was rounded out by Felician College, Bloomfield College, Goldey-Beacom College and Chestnut Hill College.

Wilmington won the CACC Tournament Championship last season with a thrilling victory over Holy Family. The game was tied 1-1 after two overtimes before the Wildcats won a shootout by a score of 5-3. The squad returns eight starters and will be led by junior forward Sargbah Tarpeh, who was a first team All-Conference selection the last two seasons. Wilmington also welcomes back two second team All-Region players in junior defender Selekie Kamara and sophomore defender Billy Curran. Wilmington finished with a 12-5-2 overall record and a 7-1-1 conference mark last year.

Despite losing the 2007 CACC Player of the Year, Jhonny Arteaga, Dominican returns a handful of starters as junior forward Joe Wright and junior defenders James Hamilton and Dan Kelly will lead the young squad. Wright was voted the CACC Rookie of the Year in 2007 after ranking fifth in the league with 23 points (9 goals, 5 assists). The Chargers were the CACC regular-season champions with an 8-0-1 record to go with an 11-3-5 overall mark.

Caldwell, selected third by the coaches, returns first team All-CACC forward Chad Bennett and honorable mention goalkeeper John Plaugic from last year's team that went 10-6-4 overall and took third in the conference. They are among seven starters back from the 2007 squad that advanced to the semifinals of the CACC Tournament for the fifth straight season. After reaching the CACC Tournament Championship game last season, Holy Family was picked fourth and returns five starters.

 The complete 2008 CACC Men's Soccer Preseason Poll is below.

 

School	2007 Records	Points
1. Wilmington (4)	12-5-2/7-1-1 CACC	113
2. Dominican (5)	11-3-5/8-0-1	107
3. Caldwell	10-6-4/6-1-2	89
4. Holy Family (1)	14-7-2/6-3	88
5. Philadelphia (1)*	3-13-2/1-3-1	72
T-6. Nyack	6-10-3/2-6-1	59
T-6. Post	4-14-1/3-5-1	59
8. Felician	3-14-3/2-5-2	47
9. Bloomfield	3-12-3/2-4-3	41
10. Goldey-Beacom	1-14-3/1-5-3	27
11. Chestnut Hill	7-10-2/1-8	24
()-First Place Votes

                                * - Record as a member of the Atlantic Soccer Conference