SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Two-time defending Southern Conference tournament champion Richmond has been picked to win the league again in 2020 in a vote of the eight league head coaches. The coaches also picked a 13-member preseason All-Southern Conference team, with the Spiders and Jacksonville leading the way with four selections each.

Coaches were not permitted to vote for their own teams or student-athletes. Six of the eight league teams were represented on the preseason All-SoCon team.

Richmond, which went 10-7 overall and tied for third at 5-2 in SoCon play in 2019, earned six first-place votes and 48 total points in the poll. High Point, which shared the regular-season title with Air Force and fell to the Spiders in the tournament title game last season, was second with 41 points and the remaining two first-place votes. Air Force is third in the poll with 36 points and Jacksonville finished fourth with 33.

Mercer was picked fifth with 22 points, followed by Furman with 19, Bellarmine with 15 and VMI with 10.

Two-time SoCon Offensive Player of the Year Asher Nolting of High Point and Richmond long stick midfielder Sean Menges earned the maximum number of points in voting for the preseason all-conference team.

Joining Nolting, a second-team Inside Lacrosse Preseason Media All-American, at attack on the preseason All-SoCon squad are Sean Goldsmith of Mercer and Ryan Lanchbury of Richmond.

Nolting rewrote the SoCon record book yet again as a sophomore. After becoming the first player in league history to record 30 goals and 30 assists in the same season in his SoCon Freshman of the Year campaign in 2018, Nolting turned in the first 40-40 season in 2019, scoring 44 goals and dishing off a SoCon-record 48 assists for a league-record 92 points.

Lanchbury scored a SoCon-record 52 goals last season, adding 20 assists to tie for second in the league with 72 points. Goldsmith shared Mercer’s scoring lead with 34 points last season on 10 assists and a team-best 24 goals. Nolting and Lanchbury were first-team All-SoCon selections last year.

Jacksonville’s Jack Dolan and Evan Tyler and Richmond’s Mitch Savoca earned preseason honors at midfield. Dolan had 54 points on 30 goals and 24 assists, tying for third in the league in assists and ranking fourth in points. Tyler was fourth in the SoCon with 37 goals, adding 11 assists to finish with 48 points to rank eighth in the league. Savoca had 24 goals and seven assists to total 31 points. Dolan and Savoca were first-team all-conference picks last season, while Tyler was a second-team selection.

Air Force’s Quentin Carlile, Jacksonville’s Jordan Young and Richmond’s Jason Reynolds comprise the preseason defensive unit. Carlile had 31 ground balls and caused 23 turnovers, helping the Falcons lead the league in goals against average.  Young had 27 ground balls and 27 caused turnovers, helping the Dolphins lead the SoCon in the latter category. For Richmond, which was second in the league in GAA, Reynolds had 44 ground balls and 22 caused turnovers. Young and Reynolds were first-team all-conference picks last season, while Carlile earned second-team honors.

Preseason All-SoCon goalkeeper Alec Van de Bovenkamp of Furman was a second-team all-conference pick last season, when he ranked second in the league in saves (182) and saves per game (13.00) and turned in a .510 save percentage and a 12.96 GAA.

Mercer’s Ashton Wood, also a second-team all-conference pick in 2019, gets the preseason nod at faceoff specialist. Wood finished second in the SoCon and seventh nationally with a .644 faceoff winning percentage last season, also finishing second in the league in ground balls (100) and ground balls per game (7.69). He set SoCon single-game records last season for faceoffs won (29) and ground balls (19), both against Furman on April 6.

Jacksonville’s Zack Deaken earns the preseason spot at short stick midfielder after taking second-team all-conference honors last season. Deaken had 41 ground balls and 19 caused turnovers and scored a goal last year.

Rounding out the preseason squad is long stick midfielder Menges, who had 45 ground balls and 30 caused turnovers, adding a goal and three assists on the year.

The 2020 Southern Conference men’s lacrosse season gets under way Saturday, Feb. 1, with six teams in action. This season’s SoCon Championship will be held at High Point’s Vert Stadium in High Point, North Carolina, on April 30 and May 2.


2020 Preseason Southern Conference Coaches Poll
Team (1st-place votes)    Total
1. Richmond (6)                 48
2. High Point (2)                 41
3. Air Force                         36
4. Jacksonville                    33
5. Mercer                            22
6. Furman                           19
7. Bellarmine                      15
8. VMI                                  10

2020 Preseason All-Southern Conference team
A    Asher Nolting, High Point
A    Sean Goldsmith, Mercer
A    Ryan Lanchbury, Richmond
M    Jack Dolan, Jacksonville
M    Evan Tyler, Jacksonville
M    Mitch Savoca, Richmond
D    Quentin Carlile, Air Force
D    Jordan Young, Jacksonville
D    Jason Reynolds, Richmond
GK    Alec Van de Bovenkamp, Furman
FO    Ashton Wood, Mercer
SSM    Zack Deaken, Jacksonville
LSM    Sean Menges, Richmond