IRVING, Texas — Redshirt-junior Tom Smart of The University of New Mexico men’s soccer team has been named to the 2018 Conference USA Preseason Team, the league announced Tuesday. C-USA also released the 2018 Preseason Poll, which slated the Lobos predicted to finish fifth in the league.
Full C-USA Release
Smart earns his second straight preseason honor immediately after finishing last season an All-Conference USA Second Team honoree. Smart has registered a spot on at least one C-USA list in each of his three seasons as, following his redshirt-freshman season, Smart was named to the C-USA All-Freshmen Team and to the All-C-USA Second Team.
Smart has amassed 3,388 minutes on the pitch for the Lobos in just two seasons, including a pair of assists for the highly-decorated defender. He ranks second in Lobo history in minutes played as a freshman (1,991).
The Lobos were picked by the league’s head coaches in the 2018 Preseason Poll to finish fifth with one first-place vote. Leading the way was 2017 Regular-Season Champion FIU with four first-place votes, followed by Charlotte with two. The 2017 Conference USA Tournament Champion Old Dominion and Kentucky came in at third and fourth, respectively to round out the top five.
UNM returns eight letterwinners from last year including seniors Antoine Vial, Simon Spangenberg and Matt Dorsey. Vial finished second on the Lobos last season with four goals while Spangenberg registered one goal and one assist for three points. Dorsey saw action in 17 matches as a defender and posted one assist.
Joining the trio of seniors is sophomore Nick Taylor, who as a freshmen registered five points on a pair of goals and an assist, and sophomore Nick Barreiro, who helped anchor the back line when now Real Salt Lake player Aaron Herrera was moved to attack.
The Lobos will host their first exhibition game of the season on Monday, August 13 at home against West Texas A&M at 10 a.m. After a pair pf road exhibitions at Denver and Air Force, the Lobos will host their season opener against Seattle on Friday, August 24 at 78 p.m. at the UNM Soccer Complex.