Men's Soccer: Hawks picked to win GLVC Championship

The Rockhurst men’s soccer team has been voted by the league coaches to win the 2012 Great Lakes Valley Conference Championship. The Hawks, who finished with a 17-2-3 record in 2011, earned 13 first-place votes and 222 points in the GLVC pre-season poll.

Rockhurst advanced to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Division II Championship before falling in a shootout at No. 21 Millersville to end the 2011 season. The sixth-ranked Hawks return 19 lettermen and 10 starters, including four NSCAA All-Americans.

Quincy, which claimed its first-ever GLVC Championship last year, ranked second in the poll with 189 points and one first-place vote. Indianapolis followed in third with 187 points and Lewis was fourth with 182 points and a first-place vote.

Also earning a first-place vote was Bellarmine, which ranked fifth overall with 173 points, just three points ahead of Drury in sixth with 170 points. Missouri S&T garnered 151 points to place seventh in the poll, followed by Missouri-St. Louis (119) and William Jewell (109) in eighth and ninth, respectively.

McKendree was selected to finish 10th with 97 points in its inaugural season in the conference. Wisconsin-Parkside (88), Southern Indiana (79), Saint Joseph’s (62), Maryville (45), Illinois Springfield (27) and Kentucky Wesleyan (20) rounded out the poll.

The 16 GLVC men’s soccer teams will compete in a 15-game round robin schedule during the regular season with the top eight teams earning a berth to the GLVC Championship Tournament. The top four seeds will host quarterfinal matches on campus on Oct. 28 with the four remaining teams heading to the top remaining seed site for the semifinals and final on Nov. 2 and 4.

The Hawks, who begin practice on Aug. 14, will open the regular season on Aug. 30 at Benedictine before beginning conference play on Sept. 7 at Saint Joseph’s.