CHARLOTTE, N.C. (theACC.com) \u2013\u00a0Coming off its national championship run in 2024, North Carolina has been selected as the favorite in the annual Preseason Atlantic Coast Conference Women\u2019s Soccer Coaches Poll, announced Thursday by the conference office. In addition, the 2025 Preseason Women\u2019s Soccer All-ACC Team was also unveiled.<\/p>\n
Extending the streak of eight consecutive seasons in which an ACC team has played in the national championship match, the Tar Heels claimed their nation-best 23rd title and first since 2012. UNC defeated in-state rival Wake Forest, 1-0, in the title match after the Women\u2019s College Cup featured four ACC teams for the first time in league history.<\/p>\n
The Tar Heels topped the poll with a league-best 10 first-place votes and 246 total points, finishing 17 points ahead of second-place Notre Dame, which earned a pair of first-place votes. Defending ACC champion Florida State landed third in the poll with four first-place votes and 225 points, as the Seminoles seek their sixth straight conference title this season.<\/p>\n
Fellow Women\u2019s College Cup participants Duke (208 points), Stanford (201 points) and Wake Forest (172) followed in the poll in fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively. Virginia, which received the final first-place vote, placed seventh with 169 points, while in-state rival Virginia Tech landed eighth with 162 points.<\/p>\n
Clemson (132 points) claimed the ninth spot, with California (124) rounding out the top 10. The remainder of the poll includes Pitt (111 \u2013 11th), SMU (83 \u2013 12th), Boston College (81 \u2013 13th), Louisville (67 \u2013 14th), Miami (44 \u2013 15th), NC State (40 \u2013 16th) and Syracuse (18 \u2013 17th).<\/p>\n
Of the 14 players on this year\u2019s Preseason All-ACC Team, 10 were named to the 2024 All-ACC team, including first-team selections Cameron Roller (Duke), Jordynn Dudley (Florida State), Kate Faasse (North Carolina), Izzy Engle (Notre Dame) and Leah Kelnke (Notre Dame). Faasse became the fifth straight ACC player to win the MAC Hermann Trophy, the most coveted individual honor in NCAA Division I soccer. was named the ACC Defensive Player of the Year, while Engle was tabbed the ACC Freshman of the Year.<\/p>\n
In the Preseason United Soccer Coaches Poll, eight ACC teams landed in the top 25, tying for the most of any conference. All eight ranked ACC teams were slotted in the top 15, with North Carolina (No. 1), Notre Dame (No. 2), Florida State (No. 3) and Duke (No. 4) holding the top four spots.<\/p>\n
The 2025 season gets underway on Thursday, August 14, with all 17 ACC teams in action. The opening day slate is headlined by a top-15 matchup when No. 11 Penn State visits No. 4 Duke at 7 p.m. ET on ACC Network Extra.<\/p>\n
2025 Preseason ACC Women\u2019s Soccer Coaches Poll<\/p>\n
1. North Carolina (10), 246
2. Notre Dame (2), 229
3. Florida State (4), 225
4. Duke, 208
5. Stanford, 201
6. Wake Forest, 172
7. Virginia (1), 169
8. Virginia Tech, 162
9. Clemson, 132
10. California, 124
11. Pitt, 111
12. SMU, 83
13. Boston College, 81
14. Louisville, 67
15. Miami, 44
16. NC State, 40
17. Syracuse, 18<\/p>\n
2025 Preseason All-ACC Team<\/p>\n
Teagan Wy, Sr., GK, California
\nMia Minestrella, Jr., F, Duke
\nMia Oliaro, Jr., M, Duke
\nCameron Roller, Jr., D, Duke
\nJordynn Dudley, Jr., F, Florida State
\nHeather Gilchrist, Sr., D, Florida State
\nTessa Dellarose, Sr., M\/D, North Carolina
\nKate Faasse, Sr., F\/M, North Carolina
\nOlivia Thomas, Jr., F, North Carolina
\nLinda Ullmark, So., M, North Carolina
\nIzzy Engle, So., F, Notre Dame
\nLeah Klenke, Sr., D\/M, Notre Dame
\nAndrea Kitahata, R-Sr., F, Stanford
\nMaggie Cagle, Sr., F, Virginia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHARLOTTE, N.C. (theACC.com) \u2013\u00a0Coming off its national championship run in 2024, North Carolina has been selected as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52900,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-52899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}