Men's Soccer Faces A Steep Mountain To Climb

The Big East announced the preseason coaches' polling for men's soccer yesterday, and much like the women's polling, things are expected to stay the same around the league.  Marquette's squad is picked to finish 6th in the Blue Division, which is the same spot they finished last season.  But that's what happens when the defending Big East Player of the Year plays for a team in your division, as is the case with first place favorite Connecticut and senior midfielder Tony Cascio.

Over in the Red Division, 2010 NCAA runner up Louisville is the unanimous pick to finish first.  The Cardinals went without a loss last season until the National Championship game, and snagged hardware in all three individual preseason awards: Forward Colin Rolfe shares the preseason offensive player of the year award with Connecticut's Cascio, while Austin Berry was named preseason defensive player of the year and Andre Boudreaux was tabbed as preseason goalkeeper of the year.

No Golden Eagles made it to the preseason All Big East Team, so we'll wrap up here with that complete list:

GK Andre Boudreaux, Louisville
B Andrew Jean-Baptiste, Connecticut
B Austin Berry, Louisville
B Aaron Maund, Notre Dame
B Raymon Gaddis, West Virginia
MF Carlos Alvarez, Connecticut
MF Ian Christianson, Georgetown
MF Dillon Powers, Notre Dame
F Tony Cascio, Connecticut
F Antonio Aguilar, DePaul
F Steve Neumann, Georgetown
F Colin Rolfe, Louisville