NJAC Release
PITMAN, N.J. (August 23, 2016) – The Rutgers University-Newark men's soccer team was picked to finish fourth in the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) according to a poll of the league's head coaches.
Rutgers-Newark is coming off yet another extremely successful season, winning an Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) title and finishing with 16 victories and an overall record of 16-7-1. The Scarlet Raiders reached the conference tournament after a 4-4-1 league ledger in 2015.
Defending regular-season champ Montclair State University, Rowan University and defending NJAC Tournament champ Rutgers University-Camden occupy spots one, two and three in the poll, with Kean University rounding out the top-five one spot behind the Scarlet Raiders. All five teams competed in the 2015 NJAC Tournament.
Stockton University, The College of New Jersey, William Paterson University, Ramapo College and New Jersey City University are in slots 6-through-10.
2016 NJAC Preseason Poll
1. Montclair State (7)
2. Rowan (2)
3. Rutgers-Camden (1)
4. Rutgers-Newark
5. Kean (dark horse)
6. Stockton
7. TCNJ
8. William Paterson
9. Ramapo
10. NJCU
(first place votes in parenthesis)
The 58th season of NJAC men's soccer will kick off on Thursday, September 1 with six league teams in non-conference action. The Scarlet Raiders will be one of those six teams as they travel to Center Valley, Pa. for a matchup against DeSales University.
Conference play will begin on September 14 at Rutgers-Camden, and R-N opens its home slate against John Jay College on Monday, September 19 which is five days prior to their first home NJAC match against Kean University.
After two at-large berths to the NCAA Tournament in 2013 and 2014, the Scarlet Raiders reached the NJAC tourney in 2015 and went on to win the ECAC Metro crown. Rutgers-Newark has finished in the top-six of the league standings every year since 2011 to appear in the conference tournament, and has earned at least one postseason victory every season since 2008.
Kevin East – now in his 10th year as the program's head coach – has guided Newark to 120 victories and will be working with a team that returns four all-conference performers from 2015.
