WEST BABYLON, N.Y. – Defending champion Mercy topped the 2023 ECC Men's Soccer Preseason Poll, as voted on by the league's nine head coaches and announced on Thursday morning. In addition, Roberts Wesleyan senior forward Tamas Nagy (Szár, Hungary) was tabbed the ECC Preseason Offensive Player of the Year while Mercy junior goalkeeper Eirik Elvestad (Oslo, Norway) and Molloy senior back Jonas Jacobsen (Larvik, Norway) share ECC Preseason Defensive Co-Player of the Year honors.
Mercy received six of nine first-place votes to take the top spot in the poll with 76 points. The Mavericks return three of their top five goal scorers and eight players who started as least 10 matches for the 2022 squad that won the program's fifth ECC Championship and reached the NCAA Championship Second Round.
Reigning ECC Co-Goalkeeper of the Year Elvestad, reigning ECC Rookie of the Year back Mathias Schilbred-Eriksen, and three fellow All-Conference honorees in forward Luis Silva, midfielder Daniel Rodriguez, and back Martin Penafiel are among key returnees for the Mavericks.
Following a historic season in which the Knights hosted their first ECC postseason game, reached the ECC semifinals, and earned an at-large bid to make their first NCAA Tournament appearance, Queens took the runner-up spot in the poll with one first-place vote en route to 69 points. The Knights return their top two goal scorers in All-Conference midfielders Adolfo Martinez Paquet and Leo Pinto as well as nine players who started at least 10 matches last fall.
The final two first-place votes in the poll went to Molloy, who finished third with 63 points. The Lions won the ECC regular-season title and reached the ECC Championship final last fall after claiming the ECC Championship trophy in 2021. All-Conference returners for the Lions include backs Jacobsen and Ryan Dobson and midfielder Ollie Murch.
Roberts Wesleyan rounds out the top four in the poll with 54 points.
A 2022 All-ECC Second Team selection, Roberts Wesleyan's Nagy tied for the conference lead in points (43), goals (16), and assists (11) last season. In one of the most impressive individual performances of his 2022 campaign, Nagy scored all three goals for his first collegiate hat trick in the Redhawks' 3-3 draw with Molloy in the ECC Championship semifinals.
The reigning ECC Co-Goalkeeper of the Year, Mercy's Elvestad led the conference with a 0.95 goals against average and owned an ECC-best seven shutouts last fall. He went 11-2-5 in goal with 64 saves and was a two-time ECC Defensive Player of the Week. Elvestad made a combined 12 saves against Queens and Molloy in the ECC Championship semifinals and final before closing an outstanding sophomore campaign with a career-high 10 saves against David Elkins in the NCAA Championship Second Round.
Molloy's Jacobsen returns having earned All-ECC First Team recognition a year ago. The 2021 ECC Championship Most Outstanding Player, Jacobsen appeared and started in all 20 matches last fall, collecting seven points on a campaign that included a pair of penalty-kick goals with four assists in 1,782 minutes of action on the back line.
2023 ECC Men's Soccer Preseason Poll
| School | Pts. | 2022 Record |
| 1. Mercy (6) | 76 | 12-3-5 (4-1-3 ECC) |
| 2. Queens (1) | 69 | 13-7-0 (6-2-0 ECC) |
| 3. Molloy (2) | 63 | 8-4-8 (6-0-2 ECC) |
| 4. Roberts Wesleyan | 54 | 11-5-6 (3-1-4 ECC) |
| 5. Daemen | 40 | 7-7-3 (3-4-1 ECC) |
| 6. District of Columbia | 34 | 7-7-2 (2-5-1 ECC) |
| 7. St. Thomas Aquinas | 32 | 6-6-4 (2-3-3 ECC) |
| 8. Staten Island | 28 | 4-11-2 (2-4-2 ECC) |
| 9. D'Youville | 9 | 1-14-0 (0-8-0 ECC) |
( ) - first place votes
Preseason Offensive Player of the Year: Tamas Nagy, Sr., F, Roberts Wesleyan
Preseason Defensive Co-Players of the Year: Eirik Elvestad, Jr., GK, Mercy and Jonas Jacobsen, Sr., B, Molloy
