The Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference and Commissioner Dan Mara has released the results of the 2025 Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) Men's Soccer Preseason Coaches' Poll
In voting done by the league's 11 head coaches, Chestnut Hill College was ranked 11th in the forecasted standings with 14 total points. Meanwhile, defending CACC Champion Felician University garnered seven of the 11 first place votes and 96 points to capture the top spot.
Post University, the 2024 CACC regular-season champion and tournament finalist and an NCAA Tournament participant a year ago, collected two first-place votes and was chosen for second place with 89 points. Wilmington University was picked for third place with 81 points and garnered one first-place vote. Felician is ranked No. 8 and Post No. 15 in the 2025 national Division II preseason coaches poll.
The next five positions in the poll went to, respectively, the University of Bridgeport (4th, 68 points), Georgian Court University (5th, 67), Thomas Jefferson University (6th, 54), Caldwell University (7th, 47), and Goldey-Beacom College (8th, 41). Jefferson received the final first-place vote. Holy Family University was slotted into the ninth position with 32 points, followed by Dominican University New York (16) and Chestnut Hill College (14).
The 2025 version of the Griffins' Men's Soccer team will have a whole new look as the team returned just seven players from the 2024 team. Returning to join those seven will be Abdoulaye Kamagate, who missed all of 2024. Kamagate was the team's second leading scorer in 2023 with seven goals and 17 points.
This year's team will also have 18 new faces, a combination of true freshman and transfers to give second-year coach Jesse Zafiratos plenty of depth for the season. Eleven of the 18 have collegiate soccer experience with several of those having played on the NCAA division II level.
The team will seek to improve upon last year's 3-10-5 overall mark as they began pre-season practices this week. The team has a scrimmage at Penn State-Abington on Wednesday and opens the 2025 regular season with a home contest against Lock Haven University on September 4 at 7:00 p.m. at Victory Field.
Conference action is slated to start on Sept. 17. At season's end, the top eight teams in the standings will qualify for the CACC Championship tournament. The quarterfinals and semifinals will be held on Nov. 9 and 12 at campus sites. Post will host the championship final on Nov. 15 at LaMoy Field in Waterbury, Conn. The CACC champion will automatically qualify for the 2025 NCAA Division II Super Region 1 Championship.
