Aug. 21, 2001

MACON, Ga. - -The Samford soccer team was picked to finish sixth in the Atlantic Sun's annual preseason women's soccer poll as voted on by the league's head coaches.

Jacksonville University it the conference's pick to repeat as A-Sun Champions receiving 122 overall votes. The Dolphins return seven starters from a team that won the 2000 conference tournament and advanced to the NCAA Tournament with a 19-3 overall record and a perfect 9-0 mark in conference play.

UCF (six-time conference champion) is picked to finish second as the Golden Knights received three first- place votes and tallied 111 points in the preseason poll. Florida Atlantic, which lost 2-1 in last season's conference championship match to Jacksonville, is slated to finish third (107 points) as the Lady Owls received the other two first place votes.

Georgia State and Jacksonville State were picked fourth and fifth ahead of Samford who received 61 votes. The Bulldogs went 8-8-1 last season and finished in seventh place. The return of All-Freshman team member Hayley Kolb and a strong recruiting class of 12 new freshmen have the Bulldogs ready to make a run into the upper half of the conference.

Mercer, Belmont, Stetson, Campbell, and Troy State round out the preseason poll. The top six regular season finishers will advance to the 2001 Atlantic Sun Women's Soccer Championship which will be held on November 8-10 in Orlando, Fla., on UCF's campus. The winner will earn the A-Sun's automatic bid to the NCAA Championship.