Aug. 5, 2003
The Old Dominion men's soccer team received votes in a national preseason poll by College Soccer News magazine. In the poll the Monarchs are ranked just outside the top 30 in the nation.
ODU is coming off a 2002 campaign in which they won their first NCAA Division I Tournament match, advancing for the first time to the second round of the NCAA College Cup. The Monarchs blanked former Colonial Athletic Association foe, the University of Richmond, 3-0 at home in the first round. In the second round, ODU fell to number one seed Wake Forest in a close 1-0 decision.
Also in 2002, rising senior Attila Vendegh (Bratislava, Slovakia) became the most prolific scorer in school history by the breaking the records for most career goals and most career points. After last season's 16 goal and seven assist performance, the two-time CAA Player of the Year now has 46 goals, 16 assists and 108 career points.
Head Coach Alan Dawson, who is entering his seventh season with the Monarchs, led ODU to a 10-9-1 record last season. He is now 58-43-8 at Old Dominion including two regular season conference championships. In 15 seasons as a collegiate head coach Dawson has compiled a record of 187-73-18.
Old Dominion was last ranked nationally in 1999 when they were voted 13th in the nation in the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NCSAA) November 8th poll.
Maryland is the preseason number one pick with UCLA and St. John's rounding out the top three. Reigning CAA Champion Virginia Commonwealth, who also received votes, was the only other conference school in the poll.
Nationally ranked ODU opponents for this year include #4 Wake Forest, #5 Stanford and #18 California.
College Soccer News 2003 Pre-Season Top 30 National Rankings
1. Maryland2. UCLA3. St. John's4. Wake Forest5. Stanford6. SMU7. Penn State8. Creighton9. Furman10. Indiana11. Wisconsin-Milwaukee12. Notre Dame13. Clemson14. Boston College15. Connecticut16. St. Louis17. Pennsylvania18. California19. U.C. Santa Barbara20. New Mexico21. Virginia22. Coastal Carolina23. Washington24. Duke25. Portland26. Northeastern27. San Diego28. UAB29. Michigan30. Bradley
Others Who Received Votes: North Carolina, Loyola Marymount, Fairleigh Dickinson,Old Dominion, Rutgers, Oregon State, American, South Florida,Charlotte, Ohio State, Yale, Cal State Northridge, San Francisco,South Carolina, Virginia Commonwealth,Cincinnati, Akron