Zips Men's Soccer Ranked No. 1 in Preseason Poll

Well the bar has been set pretty high by the Akron Zips soccer team who, Despite losing the top scorer in the nation and maybe best goal keeper in the Akron history history, are Top Drawer Soccer, which awarded the Zips a No. 1 in their 2009 pre-season poll Tuesday. (from gozips.com)

"Caleb Porter’s program gets the nod as the #1 selection in the TopDrawerSoccer.com Tournament 48 Men’s College Soccer pre-season ranking, continuing the Mid-American Conference school’s rise to nationally-elite status over the past few years. Despite losing all-everything forward Steve Zakuani, standout goalkeeper Evan Bush and others, the Zips continue to bring in top recruiting classes each season and should be able to more than make up for the loss of the departing seniors." -- Top Drawer Soccer

The Zips, who were ranked No. 9 in the final CSN and NSCAA/adidas polls a year ago, return seven of their 11 starters most noteaballyAnthony Ampaipitakwong, Sarkodie and Darlington Nagbe – from a team that recorded the second-highest win total in school history in 2008.

The Full top drawer pre-season rankers are as follows

2009 Top Drawer Soccer Preseason Poll

1. Akron
2. St. John's
3. Creighton
4. California
5. Maryland
6. Indiana
7. Wake Forest
8. Northwestern
9. North Carolina
10. UC Santa Barbara
11. UIC
12. South Florida
13. Notre Dame
14. Connecticut
15. Tulsa
16. Virginia
17. Louisville
18. SMU
19. Dayton
20. UCLA
21. Boston College
22. San Francisco
23. Dartmouth
24. Michigan
25. Denver
26. Duke
27. Michigan State
28. George Mason
29. Ohio State
30. Santa Clara