Big South Announces 2024 Men's Soccer Preseason Poll & Honors
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (www.BigSouthSports.com) – Two-time defending men’s soccer champion
High Point University has been voted the favorite in the annual Big South Conference preseason poll by the league’s head coaches, it was announced today by the conference office. In addition, the coaches voted Presbyterian College forward
Damorney Hutchinson (St. Thomas, Jamaica) the Preseason Offensive Player of the Year, High Point midfielder
Jefferson Amaya (Charlotte, N.C.) the Preseason Midfielder of the Year, Winthrop defender
Diego Candia (Santiago, Chile) the Preseason Defensive Player of the Year, and UNC Asheville netminder
Charlie Farrar (Wakefield, United Kingdom) the Preseason Goalkeeper of the Year. All four players also earned spots on the preseason All-Conference team, which is listed below.
High Point, which has not lost a regular-season Big South match since 2019 and is 24-0-7 in those league contests in that timeframe, was a near unanimous selection with seven of the eight first-place votes received and 62 total points to repeat as champions this fall. The Panthers, under the direction of sixth-year head coach
Zach Haines, returns six starters and 15 letterwinners from last year’s championship squad that finished 10-4-5 overall last season and 6-0-1 in conference play.
UNC Asheville, the 2023 Championship Runner-up, was second in the voting with 51 points for its highest-ever preseason ranking.
Gardner-Webb (48 points) was third in the balloting, while
Presbyterian College collected 31 points to finish fourth in the poll.
Winthrop and
Longwood shared the fifth position with 30 points each, just ahead of seventh-place
USC Upstate (28 points and the remaining first-place vote).
Radford finished in the final spot with eight points.
Hutchinson is the first-ever Blue Hose to receive Big South Preseason Offensive Player of the Year honors. He was the league’s 2023 Newcomer of the Year, as he led the conference with seven goals -- six of which came in Big South action. A First-Team All-Big South honoree in his first season at PC a season ago, Hutchinson started 12 of his 15 appearances and scored twice in Presbyterian’s road win over USC Upstate on Oct. 7. He also netted goals against UNC Asheville (Sept. 23), Gardner-Webb (Sept. 30), Furman (Oct. 17), Longwood (Oct. 28) and Radford (Nov. 1), and tallied two assists in the win over Asheville. Hutchinson topped the preseason Offensive Player of the Year voting with 13 points (six first-place votes), followed by Winthrop forward
Ricardo Ferreira (six points, one first-place vote).
Amaya is the inaugural Preseason Midfielder of the Year honoree, as the award was added this past offseason. Last year’s Big South Offensive Player of the Year as well as the 2022 Big South Freshman of the Year, Amaya scored five goals and issued six assists for 16 points in his 18 games (all starts) for the Panthers in 2023. He logged 1,510 minutes on the pitch, posted two game-winning scores and netted two goals and an assist in HPU’s victory over USC Upstate on Sept. 23. In league action, he had four goals and four assists. Amaya was a two-time Offensive Player of the Week honoree and was invited to the annual MLS College Showcase following the season. He collected 21 points and seven first-place votes, ahead of Winthrop’s
Rodrigo Ferreria (remaining first-place vote) and Presbyterian’s
Carson Griffith, as both players tied with eight points.
Candia earned Second-Team All-Big South honors in 2023. He started all 14 games he played and is one of the more steady defenders on the backline. A physical, strong defender, Candia scored his first and only goal at UNC Asheville on Oct. 28. He played the third-most minutes for Winthrop last year (1,120) and assisted on the team’s only goal at Furman on Sept. 8. Candia received three first-place votes and seven points in the preseason defensive voting, ahead of Asheville’s
Myles Edmondson (two first-place votes and six points).
Farrar is the reigning Big South Goalkeeper of the Year, as the First-Team All-Big South selection helped the Bulldogs reach the Conference Championship final for the first time in program history. A United Soccer Coaches All-South Region Third-Team honoree last season -- the first player in program history to earn All-Region honors, Farrar started 17 matches and posted a 10-4-3 record between the pipes with four shutouts. He ranked second in the Big South in goals against average (1.26), second in saves (69) and second in save percentage (.758). Farrar was named Big South Defensive Player of the Week on Oct. 30 after a career-high 10 saves in the victory over Winthrop on Oct. 28. He received 20 points and six first-place votes in the preseason balloting, ahead of High Point keeper
Josh Caron (11 points, one first-place vote) and Upstate’s
Cooper Jennings (eight points).
The 2024 Big South men’s soccer season begins Thursday, Aug. 22, while Conference play opens Friday, Sept. 20. The top six teams in the final Big South standings will qualify for the 2024 Big South Men’s Soccer Championship, which is scheduled for Nov. 6 (First Round), Nov. 10 (Semifinals) and Nov. 16 (Championship Final), with every match to be contested at the home site of the higher seed. The champion receives the Big South’s automatic bid to the NCAA Championship.
2024 BIG SOUTH PRESEASON MEN’S SOCCER ALL-CONFERENCE TEAM
F: Damorney Hutchinson, Presbyterian College (Preseason Offensive Player of the Year)
F: Ricardo Ferreira, Winthrop
F: Aysa Hamid, UNC Asheville
MF: Jefferson Amaya, High Point (Preseason Midfielder of the Year)
MF: Carson Griffith, Presbyterian College
MF: Brendan Herb, UNC Asheville
MF: Conor Behan, UNC Asheville
D: Diego Candia, Winthrop (Preseason Defensive Player of the Year)
D: Myles Edmondson, UNC Asheville
D: Max Fisher, Gardner-Webb
D: Leo Andrade, Gardner-Webb (tie)
D: Elijah Jackson, USC Upstate
GK: Charlie Farrar, UNC Asheville (Preseason Goalkeeper of the Year)
AL: Rodrigo Ferreira, MF, Winthrop
2024 BIG SOUTH PRESEASON MEN’S SOCCER POLL
| Rk - School (first-place votes) |
Points |
| 1 - High Point (7) |
62 |
| 2 - UNC Asheville |
51 |
| 3 - Gardner-Webb |
48 |
| 4 - Presbyterian College |
31 |
| T-5 - Winthrop |
30 |
| T-5 - Longwood |
30 |
| 7 - USC Upstate (1) |
28 |
| 8 - Radford |
8 |
Note: points are based on a weighted system, with first-place votes receiving 8 points, followed by 7 points for second-place, and so on.