SMU, stacked with talent and national championship experience, is the 2001 preseason pick by Missouri Valley coaches. The Mustangs collected nine-of-10 first-place votes and a total of 99 points. The top scoring team in the country last year, SMU is led by the 2000 Valley Defensive Player of the Year, Carl Bussey. Bussey and 2000 MVC all-conference team members Mohamed Fahim and Byron Foss anchor a group of upperclassmen Hyndman considers the best senior class he has ever coached — quite an endorsement since Hyndman has led SMU to the NCAA quarterfinals nine times. Bussey, Fahim, Walsh, Foss and defender Luchi Gonzalez each earned a spot on the Valley preseason all-conference team. The other Valley team considered the No. 1 contender for the conference crown is defending champion, Creighton. Creighton earned one first-place vote and 86 points in the coaches poll. Bob Warming, who served as Creighton’s head coach from 1990-1994, spent the last four years at Saint Louis. Now, Warming is back with the ‘Jays. He inherits leaders on both sides of the ball including unanimous preseason all-conference pick Mike Tranchilla, who scored 19 goals and goalie Mike Gabb, who managed seven shutouts for Creighton last season. The third selection in the coaches poll is Bradley with 78 points. After directing his team to the program’s first NCAA Championship appearance, Braves head coach Jim DeRose continues to break new ground. After recording a school-record 15 wins in 2000, the Braves opened the 2001 season with eight exhibition matches during a 12-day tour of Europe. Once back on American soil, Bradley looks to continue with its high-powered offensive attack, led by Gavin Glinton. In his three seasons as a Brave, Glinton has scored 15, 13 and 15 goals, respectively. However, Glinton is not the only Brave finding the back of the net. Last year, Hamid Mehreioskouei managed a school-record 13 assists last season along with 11 goals. After just one season in the Valley, Tulsa made quite an impression as the Golden Hurricane tallied 65 points and is picked No. 4 in the coaches poll. Perhaps it was the seven, one-goal losses that Tulsa suffered in 2000 that give Valley coaches cause for pause. Last year, Tulsa finished 5-4-2 in the conference, and half of TU’s defeats came in the waning minutes of the matches. Seven starters are back for Tulsa including goalie Brent Salter. Salter collected 74 saves against 30 goals allowed for a goals-against-average of 1.54 over 19 matches. Southwest Missouri State locked in the No. 5 spot in the coaches poll. SMS head coach Jon Leamy has his sights set on regaining national prominence. Last year, the Bears roared to a 7-1-1 start, including a 2-1 victory over eventual Valley champion Creighton and a 1-1, double overtime tie with Saint Louis. However, SMS dropped three in a row and did not bounce back as the Bears finished their last 10 games, 2-6-2. Senior Jarod Bertrand, SMS’s top returning scorer, is the core of five experienced starters, who not only endured last season’s disappointing finish, but enjoyed NCAA postseason play the year prior. Leamy is not only looking to Bertrand and the rest of his seniors to help muster his troops in 2001, but to help develop the 20 new players donning SMS maroon and white this season. And while SMS makes room for numerous first-year players, Vanderbilt head coach Randy Johnson does not have to learn many additional names. This season the Commodores return all 11 of their starters from the 2000 season. Back is all the fire power which led to a 6-5 league record last year, plus the Commodores might have a secret weapon in Nik DeMello. DeMello was the team’s leading scorer in 1999, but suffered from a hernia, which sidelined DeMello for the 2000 season. In all, seven VU players sustained injuries that hindered or cost them matches last year. That in mind, Valley coaches put VU sixth in the poll with 38 points. Of course, Valley coaches will be the first to admit, at times, even the most careful reasoning is no better than pulling names from a hat. For instance, in the 2000 poll, Eastern Illinois was picked to finish 11th out of 12 teams, but the Panthers, under the guidance of first-year coach Adam Howarth, earned a No. 7 seed in the conference’s postseason tournament. In 2000, EIU obviously earned some respect, and part of its reward is the seventh spot in this year’s poll. EIU collected 34 points. With the NCAA leading goal scorer, Justin Thompson, pacing the offense, the Panthers look strong with the return of five other starters. One area of concern for Howarth however, is in goal. Four-year starter and all-conference honorable mention goalie Ryan Waguespack has graduated, and EIU’s goalkeeping duties are up for grabs. Just one point behind the Panthers, Western Kentucky is slated to finish eighth with 33 points according to Valley coaches. After finishing third in the regular-season race and qualifying for the Valley Championship field of four, WKU coach David Holmes understands the poll placement. The Hilltoppers do lose three key components to WKU’s success, not just last year, but since joining the Valley in 1997. Gone are Steven Brown, Derek O’Brien and Donovan Schultz, the Hilltoppers’ top scoring producers in 2000. Perhaps the bigger component to WKU’s continued success is in goal. This season, WKU brings back two keepers who split goalie duties last year, Ryan Lossie and Daryl Sattler. In three seasons, Lossie, a senior, has recorded 12.5 shutouts, placing him second on the all-time Hilltopper list, while Sattler, a junior, was named to the Valley all-newcomer team with 6.5 shutouts and 93 saves. The coaches poll is rounded out with Drake and Evansville tied with 31 points. For Drake, fourth-year head coach Sean Holmes is eager for his team to make a mark on the MVC. Last season, Holmes’ young team, led by the talented trio of Brian Duax, Dusty Grau and Jacob Greer, outscored its opponents, 47-42. Individually, Duax, Grau and Greer each scored 21 points or more, recording the best scoring effort in 15-years of Drake soccer. That scoring power, coupled with 15 returning letterwinners, looks promising in 2001. And speaking of promising, with a head coach who is just shy of 400 career victories, every season holds high expectations for Evansville. In 2001, the Purple Aces are sure to be in the mix after an unusually low finish in the Valley last year. Led by Fred Schmatz, the second winningest active Division I coach, UE returns 10 starters including the 1999 MVC Newcomer of the Year, Terence Gargantini. After scoring 25 points his first year in the Valley, Gargantini suffered through much of 2000 with ankle injuries. However, if Gargantini can pick up where he left off his first year and stimulate the Aces’ offense, 2001 might very well be a different story for UE. Fast fact: According to the NCAA Rating Percentage Index (RPI), the Valley was the third toughest conference in the nation last year. With the departure of TCU and Belmont, the 11th and 12th place finishers in 2000, the Valley might get even stronger this season. 2001 Missouri Valley Preseason Poll
| 1 | SMU | (9) | 99 |
| 2 | Creighton | (1) | 86 |
| 3 | Bradley | 78 | |
| 4 | Tulsa | 65 | |
| 5 | SMS | 55 | |
| 6 | Vanderbilt | 38 | |
| 7 | Eastern Illinois | 34 | |
| 8 | Western Kentucky | 33 | |
| 9 | Drake | 31 | |
| 9 | Evansville | 31 |