University of Southern Indiana Athletic Communications

The University of Southern Indiana men’s soccer team is projected to place sixth in the Great Lakes Valley Conference in 2018 in a vote by the league’s 14 head coaches. USI, the all-time leader with 10 GLVC titles, is coming off a second-place finish in the 2017 league tournament and after finishing seventh in the conference’s regular season in 2017 after posting an 11-7-1 overall mark, 8-6-0 GLVC.

The Rockhurst University men’s soccer team is predicted to win the GLVC title for a third-straight year. The Hawks received eight first-place votes and 158 points in the preseason poll. The University of Indianapolis, last season’s GLVC champion, garnered second with 154 points and three first-place votes, while Maryville University picked up the final three first place votes and was third with 153 points. Bellarmine University and Lewis University rounded out the top five with 124 and 122 points, respectively.

The 2018 USI squad is comprised of 26 players – 17 returning players and redshirts and nine newcomers. The Eagles have one senior on the team this season, compared to nine a year ago.

The top returning scorer for USI is junior forward Eric Ramirez (Vincennes, Indiana), who battled through an injury-plagued season to record 16 points on six goals and four assists in 13 matches and earning second-team All-GLVC honors. Ramirez also tied for second with two game-winning goals.

Tying for second on the team in scoring was junior midfielder Sean Rickey (Columbia, Illinois) and sophomore defender Justin Raines (Bartlett, Tennessee) with 11 points each on five goals and one assist. Rickey led USI with three game-winning goals, while Raines tied with Ramirez for second with a pair of game-winners.

The 14 GLVC men’s soccer teams will compete in a 13-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 October 28 with the four remaining teams heading to Woehrle Athletic Complex in Jeffersonville, Indiana, for the semifinals and final on November 2 and 4.

USI opens the 2018 regular season campaign on the road when the Eagles visits Kentucky Wesleyan College August 30 for a 7 p.m. showdown of cross-river rivals.