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Men's Soccer Finishes Season Ranked No. 9
Posted: Dec 06, 2018

Men's Soccer Finishes Season Ranked No. 9

Baldwin City, Kan. - After qualifying for its sixth-straight national tournament, the Baker University men's soccer team finished the 2018 season ranked No. 9 in the final installment of the 2018 NAIA Men's Soccer Coaches' Top 25 Poll, as announced by the national office.

Baker went 16-6 this past season and advanced to the final site in Irvine, California, marking their third trip in the past four years.

Also ranked from the Heart to end the season inlcudes, NAIA National Champion and No. 1 Central Methodist, and No. 2 Missouri Valley. Both MidAmerica Nazarene and Benedictine end the year receiving votes.

The Wildcats earned six Heart of America Athletic Conference All-Conference award winners and two NAIA All-Americans in 2018. Freshman Lucas Jacobs was selected as a First Team All-American, and senior Gonnie Ben-Tal was honored as a NAIA Third Team All-American.

BU also garnered five NAIA Scholar Athletes this season as Ben-Tal, Wei Xian Ng, Jake Moore, Austin Halsey, and Joah Hickel were honored for their performances in the classroom.

Halsey was also honored as a member of both the CoSIDA Academic All-District and Academic All-American teams, as he became the first athlete in the history of Baker Athletics to be named a two-time CoSIDA Academic All-American.

Top 25 Highlights

  • In a season of firsts for Central Methodist, this is the first No. 1-ranking in program history. The Eagles were well-deserved champions, finishing the season 22-2-2 and avenging their only loss in the final two months of the season by defeating Missouri Valley on penalty kicks in the national championship.
  • Missouri Valley were the national runners-up for the second year in a row, and likewise, finish another season with the No. 2 overall ranking.
  • William Carey, the tournament's No. 1 seed, dropped to No. 3 after its first and only loss on the year. The Crusaders were knocked out by Missouri Valley in the semifinals.
  • Madonna made a huge leap, jumping from No. 19 in the final regular-season poll to No. 4 in the postseason poll. The Crusaders advanced to the semifinals as an unseeded team, their first such appearance in school history.
  • Joining the postseason poll: No. 8 Rocky Mountain (Mont.), No. 17 Mid-America Christian (Okla.), No. 21 Arizona Christian, No. 24 Reinhardt (Ga.) and No. 25 Marymount California.
  • Dropping out of the poll this week: Science & Arts (Okla.), Benedictine (Kan.), The Master's (Calif.), Wayland Baptist (Texas), University of Northwestern Ohio, and Point (Ga.)
  • Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) holds the record as the longest consecutively ranked active school at 128-straight polls, dating back to the first installment of the Top 25 in 2007. Rio Grande (Ohio) is second on the list with 118 consecutive polls.

To view the entire Top 25 poll, please click here.

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