UDPride.com has sized up the 2001 A-10 mens soccer race. Several teams could conceivably walk home with the regular season and tournament titles and ranking the predicted order of finish took several tries before we came to our comfort zone. Sounds like our womens preview doesn’t it? With the season ready to begin, here’s a look at how we think things will end up if our paychecks were riding on it — which aren’t.

1. DAYTON – The Flyers lose 3rd Team NSCAA All-American R.J. Kaszuba, but the major strengths of the 2000 A-10 regular season champs return as well as a promising recruiting class. With four players on the A-10 preseason All Conference team, Dayton has extreme depth at nearly every position — possibly three deep. The midfield is a senior-laden class good enough to control almost all possession games while the defense is rock tough. Sunday Isename is a potential Player of the Year at forward and Matt Hutchins is among the best in the conference at the goalmouth. With 12 home games including conference tilts against URI, Richmond, GW, and UMass, Dayton has the easiest road in the scheduling department. If the Flyers find a way to score goals, and we suspect they will, Dayton has no apparent weaknesses, making them the clear favorite to win the regular season title.

2. RICHMOND – New conference member Richmond will benefit from leaving the tougher Colonial Athletic Conference (CAA) for the A-10. Despite graduating CAA Player of the Year Craig Ziadie, the Spiders return sophomore sensation Ken Holiday (9 goals, 7 assists) and senior goalkeeper Shawn Alexander, a sure bet to be one of the best netminders in the A-10 this year. UR has a tough schedule and plays most of the conference stalwarts on the road, but a typical Richmond non-conference schedule should get them ready. Matches against Top-25 opponents Duke and Bradley along with ACC foes NC State and Wake Forest are on tap. Even a matchup against VCU won’t be easy, but we like the returning talent and ability to make a serious run for the A-10 title in their first season. Three newcomers picked to the preseason All-Rookie team give the Spiders one of the best incoming classes in the league.

3. RHODE ISLAND – It’s easy to pick Rhode Island as conference favorites. After all, they’ve been the team to beat over the last five seasons or so. Still, there are question marks in Kingston, RI, and the first one is how to replace departed star Anthony Curtis who transferred to national champion UConn. Returning goal scoring wiz Nick McCreath is the preseason Player of the Year in our mind, but Dayton has more balance and Richmond has more to prove, which is why we think those two teams will slip by the Rams. Rhode Island hosted the A-10 Tournament a year ago, but the luxury is gone along with six starters from last year’s NCAA 2nd Round squad. The non-conference schedule isn’t nasty, but Brown and George Mason are formidable. The Rams should beat everyone else before conference play starts. Rhody has the tradition and mindset and will defend their reputation as the team to beat, but finishing 1st will be much tough than last year. How well URI’s outstanding recruiting class develops could be the difference.

4. UMASS – The Minutemen, who finished 8-1-1 a season ago and tied Dayton for the A-10 regular season crown, could have the makings of an even better team in 2001. Just days ago they played Top-10 North Carolina to a hard-fought 2-0 game and in the spring UMass up-ended Dartmouth 2-0. Nine starters and a quality bench return to help make UMass one of the teams to beat. Senior J. R. Pouncey leads one of the best defenses in the league that allowed under a goal a game throughout the 2000 season, while goalkeeper Brian O’Quinn is one of the better stoppers in the A-10. UMass has 12 home games this year and everyone one of them will be critical in the A-10 race. Home dates with Rhode Island, GW, and Richmond could catapult the Minutemen as high as 2nd, but a road date at Dayton appears to be the stiffest test in the lineup. If other teams hit a bump in the road, UMass moves up.

5. GEO. WASHINGTON – No team could surprise more in 2001 than GW. Just penalty kicks away from playing Rhode Island for the A-10 tournament title a year ago, the Colonials return among the best crop of players in the league, including preseason All-Conference performers Matt Osborne, Matt Pilkington, and Sean Ross. Osborne dumped in 15 goals and two assists last year and is the second highest returning scoring in the A-10. Pilkington and Ross occupy the midfield and defense respectively, giving GW the second most players on the preseason All Conference team (Dayton has four). Finishing in fourth a year ago with a 6-3-1 conference record (9-5-4 overall), nearly everyone returns for 2001 which means we’re may be underestimating them. A 3rd place finish is definitely in the cards if GW gets hot early and maintains it throughout the conference portion of the schedule.

6. DUQUESNE – Handicapping spots 6-12 isn’t easy, but Duquesne has the upper hand as far as we can see. Returning A-10 Defensive Player of the Year in GK Terry McNelis, the Dukes should upset a team or two in 2001 and play everyone tough. One of the few teams in the A-10 to play their home games on artificial playing surface, Duquesne enjoys a strong home field advantage and will be tough to beat in Pittsburgh. The top six scorers from a year ago are back, but the Dukes field just one senior and may find experience in the important moments something of a search and rescue operation. The defense took a hit to graduation but a highly touted recruiting class that put two players on the preseason All-Rookie team should take the edge off. The Dukes will have to work hard to finish in the Top-4, and that probably means at least one A-10 turns into a disappointment. Still, a top-half finish is well within their grasp and as any coach will tell you, a great goalkeeper goes a long way. Non-conference foes Penn State and Ohio State should be a great indicator of where this team is by conference time, but Duquesne’s last seven conference games are all on the road. That’s trouble for anyone.

7. ST. BONAVENTURE – The Bonnies finished 8-3 in conference in 1999 and made the four-team postseason A-10 Tournament, but fell on hard times a year ago and slipped to 6-12 (4-6). Senior Sean Kelty, a 2nd Team All-Conference selection in 2000 and the team’s leading scorer (12pts) must be replaced but fellow 2nd Team performer Geron DuPorte returns in the midfield. DuPorte was also named to the 2000 All-Rookie team after sitting out the 1999 season. Said Ali, a forward was also selected All-Rookie last year. But it’s still difficult to attract top talent to Olean, NY, and it may be a couple years before the Bonnies once again return to the A-10 postseason tournament. Road games outnumber home games and that’s never conducive to moving up the ladder, so getting back to the form of 1999 remains tough for at least one more season.

8. TEMPLE – The Temple Owls are a tough team to figure out. Last season they finished in a 6th place tie at 4-6 (5-11) and scored just 19 goals on the year while giving up 35. They also dropped 11 straight games in the middle of the season. Yet they mysteriously played the best teams in the conference extremely well, losing to Rhode Island, Dayton, and UMass by one goal apiece. While Temple rose to the occasion against the best, the winnable games eluded them and drove a stake into any hopes of a .500 season. We think the Owls will be improved however. By and large, the 2000 team played hard and has enough talent to add a few wore wins to the record. The fact that they won their last four conference matches a year ago could be a sign of things to come. Andrew McMenamin garnered A-10 All-Rookie accolades a year ago and provided the Owls a presence in the midfield where he notched three goals and one assist. Temple lost five seniors but we’re sticking with the law of averages and predicting the Owls to win some games they let slip away a year ago. Perhaps Temple could end up the most improved team in the league.

9. XAVIER – Eight starters are back for the Musketeers, but 2000 1st Team All-Conference members Koen Kuiken and Josh Hammerschmidt along with 4-year starter Paul Wesseling at goalkeeper are gone. Kuiken was a stopper and Hammerschmidt and midfielder, so Xavier has a lot of questions to answer down the center of the field. The Muskies do bring back six of the top seven returning scorers and the venerable A-10 postseason tournament is being hosted by Xavier at Corcoran Field which could be a motivating factor for them to qualify for the tournament. Senior defender Rob Bakker is a preseason All-Conference member and will provide some stability, but the Muskies need to score more goals this year, something they struggled with in the first part of 2000. XU tied for 6th a year ago with a 4-6 A-10 record (4-15 overall) but with a new goalkeeper and two All Conference performers no longer around, just getting to the A-10 postseason tournament will be a major breakthrough.

10. ST. JOSEPH’S – The Hawks were 3-7 (5-11) a year ago and the A-10 coaches have picked SJU dead last, but we see things otherwise. The Hawks graduate 2nd Team All Conference performer Matt Cox in the defense, but return 2nd Team performer Ryan Dougherty and A-10 Rookie of the Year Andrew Kulinski. Kulinski was the third Hawk to earn 2nd Team honors a year ago and is one of the budding young stars in the league. He needs help though. Fortunately, just two starters were lost overall and eight freshmen started at least one game a year ago. There’s no hiding the Hawks’ youth and they took their lumps a year ago but there’s promise. The Hawks had more corner kicks last season than their opponents and played relatively even ball in the first half of most contests. Don’t expect SJU to tear it up and finish in the top half of the conference, but everything else considered, other teams in the league will have a tougher time staying out of the cellar.

11. FORDHAM – Head Coach Frank Schnur is a soccer legend, piling up over 250 wins (as well as over 270 losses) in 31 years of coaching. But closing the gap and getting closer to a .500 career coaching record may have to wait another season. The Rams finished a disappointing 9th in 2000 with a 3-7 (6-12) campaign. The loss of senior David Earle, a 1st Team All-Conference selection a year ago, will be difficult to overcome on a team trying to overcome a lot. While his six goals and four assists doesn’t seem like much to replace, he was one of the few go-to players on the team and had the respect of every opponent in the league. The good news is the Rams improved from an 0-20 finish in 1999 to post six victories a year ago, but don’t expect the same jump in 2001. In fact, winning games is exponentially more difficult as teams improve, so reaching nine or 10 victories this year is probably out of the question. With a few other holes to patch, Fordham will be working hard just to finish in the top eight.

12. LASALLE – The Explorers return seven starters from last year’s 2-13 (1-9) team, but it remains to be seen if that’s good news or bad news. LaSalle suffers from a lack of offense, and it will take more than 12 goals in 2001 to finish in the Top-10, which is precisely how many the Explorers tallied a year ago in 15 games. On five occasions they lost by three or more goals and were blanked completely on 10 occasions. The non-conference schedule is predictably weak and probably reflects where the program as at this time. Unlike the LaSalle womens soccer team that’s making strides and climbing up the conference ladder, the mens program still has a lot of work to do and may have enough to stay out of the conference cellar, but little more.