Drury women’s soccer picked 3rd in Great Lakes Valley Conference coaches’ poll

The Drury women's soccer team is picked to finish third in the Great Lakes Valley Conference this season by the league's preseason coaches' poll. The Panthers received 166 points in the poll and finished behind only Maryville and McKendree in the vote of conference head coaches.

Defending regular season champion Maryville received 13 first-place votes and 195 points. McKendree was picked second with 178 points and one first-place vote. Lewis also had a first vote and was fourth in the poll with 152 points.

Justin Olson will enter his fifth year as Drury's head coach and has posted a 39-18-15 record in the last four seasons. His 2024 Panthers return 25 letter winners from a team that went 12-3-2 and 9-2-2 in the GLVC. Drury brings back three First Team All-GLVC performers, Kourtney Tucker, Tara Simon, and Andrea Camargo, who was also the league's Defensive Player of the Year last season.

The Panthers open the 2024 season on Sept. 6 against Northern State in Bemidji, Minnesota.

Drury men’s soccer 7th in GLVC preseason poll

The Drury men's soccer team was picked to finish seventh in the Great Lakes Valley Conference preseason coaches' poll, released by the league on Thursday.

The Panthers received 115 points in the poll, the seventh-most among the 15 teams in the GLVC. Lewis received five first-place votes and 185 points and was narrowly picked first. Indianapolis had six first-place votes and 181 points, while Maryville is third in the poll with first-place votes and 165 points. McKendree finished fourth in the voting with 163 points and Illinois Springfield had two first-place votes and 137 points for fifth.

Drury head coach Ben Taylor returns for his eighth season leading the program. Last year, his Panthers his Panthers reached the league quarterfinals and went 4-6-3 in the GLVC. During the last three seasons, Drury has gone 16-10-13 in conference games.

The Panthers open the 2024 regular season at home on Sept. 7 against Oklahoma Christian with a 5 p.m. game at Harrison Stadium.

Drury triathlon opens season Sept. 7

The Drury triathlon program will open its season in Indianapolis with the UIndy Super Sprint on September 7.

David Winton enters his third season as the head coach of the Drury triathlon team and has led the team to second-place finishes in the NCAA-II West Regional in each of the last two years. The Panthers finished fourth in the country at the national meet in the last two years as well.

Coach Winton brings three new faces to his program, led by freshman Eszter Vas. Vas, a native of Hungary, has raced on the Hungarian Youth National Team for two years.

Out of the nine returners for the Panthers, keep an eye out for Kristina Vestman and Alexis Workman. Vestman was on the All-Freshman Regional team last season, and Workman, a Springfield native out of Summit Prep, is entering her senior year. She won Heat 1 and finished 17th overall in Division II at last year's NCAA National Championships in Tempe, Arizona.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Drury women’s soccer picked 3rd in Great Lakes Valley Conference coaches’ poll