The University of Redlands has been selected as the top pick in the 2018 Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Men's Soccer Preseason Poll, as announced on Monday.  The Bulldogs collected seven first-place votes and a pair of second-place votes for a total of 79 points.

During the 2017 campaign, Redlands earned an undefeated SCIAC mark of 12-0-2 to capture the regular-season title for the fourth consecutive time.  The Bulldogs paced the conference with 37 goals amidst the 14 SCIAC games, which was 10 more than the next best team. 

After going 6-0-2 to close out the regular season, the Bulldogs cruised to a 3-0 win over Pomona-Pitzer Colleges in the SCIAC Postseason Tournament semifinal.

This season, Redlands returns its leading scorer in junior forward Antony Chonga (San Diego, CA) after his nine-goal effort in 2017.  Senior forward Kayvon Parsa (West Hills, CA) also brings solid firepower to the squad with six goals during last year's solid showing.

Beyond Redlands, Chapman moves up a spot from last year's finish to second in the poll with 66 points.  The subsequent vote-getters are Cal Lutheran University (52 points), which won the SCIAC Postseason Tournament; Pomona-Pitzer (51); Occidental College (50); Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges (37); Whittier College (33); University of La Verne (27); and Caltech (10).

Redlands officially opens the 2018 campaign on Friday, August 31, with a 4 p.m. non-conference contest against Vanguard University in Costa Mesa.