Throughout the entirety of the 2022 summer, the Great Midwest Athletic Conference coordinators, analytical reporters, and writers have been hard at work preparing for their 2022-2023 pre-season prediction rankings.

These rankings were recently released, with respective schools upset over their predicted placements.

Ashland University student-athletes and coaches have their fair share of expectations to meet.

AU Women’s Soccer

The women’s soccer team has come to feel like a staple on AU’s campus, with its continued dominance season after season. Last season the women finished with a 15-2-3 overall record placing first in the GMAC. In the 2020 season, they went 8-2-1, and in 2019 they went 14-5-1.

In 2021 under first-year head coach Cayleb Paulino, AU went 12-0-2 in conference play. It was the first unbeaten conference mark in Great Midwest women’s soccer since former GMAC school Ohio Valley went unbeaten during the 2017 season.

A contributing factor to AU’s rank has to be whether or not they bring back the stars that led this team to the No. 1 spot in the GMAC.

Well, they mostly did. Not only did AU bring back senior forward Bailey Clark who scored 17 points last season, but McKinley Mendenhall will also be returning after posting 15 points with five goals and five assists.

Senior Grace Bodker, however, transferred out of AU to attend division 1 school Murray State University. She was a crucial member of the AU squad posting 1290 minutes of game time which ranked 6th on the team last season.

Outside of Bodker, AU graduated their center defensive wall.

Recent graduates Mary Grace Haney and Tori Baker held down the main defensive lines this past season. Their defensive presence will definitely be something that head coach Cayleb Paulino will need to replace this season.

Where were the women slotted?

Nonetheless, The GMAC preseason rankings were kind to the Eagles, slotting them at first in the GMAC, with a total of 120 points to finish the season. They received 10 out of the 12 head coach votes to finish first in the GMAC.

AU Men’s Soccer

A season full of ups and downs easily describes the men’s team’s last season. The men finished the year with a record of 5-8-4 overall, and 5-6-3 in conference play which allotted to 7th in the GMAC.

Unfortunately for the Eagles, the COVID-19 pandemic riddled the team with quarantined players throughout the season. Ultimately, that stunted the team’s growth and ability to catch a rhythm.

Four of its five wins last season came in a streak of four games in a row, before losing all but one game to finish the season.

Seasons prior, head coach Nick Roberts led them to a record of 6-4 during the 2020 COVID-19 year.

Heading into the new season, AU will be without six of its seven thousand-minute players from last year. Defender Joseph Renner and midfielders Bradji Cekrezi, Josh Neal and Rafael Periera all left this past offseason.

Not only did AU lose three midfielders and a defender, but also graduated out forward stars Justin Libertowski, Brandon Davidson and Kieran Paterson.

Paterson, Libertowski and Davidson recorded 44 total team points, with the remaining team recording just 46 outside points.

Thankfully, AU brings fifth-year forward Haruki Kimura back who was a star for the Eagles putting up 10 points through just 10 games played.

Where were the men slotted?

Even with the extensive loss throughout the starting roster, the GMAC pre-season predictions placed the men at the No. 5 spot in the standings. The teams ahead of AU were Lake Erie who received 10 votes for first place, Cedarville who received one vote in second place, Tiffin in third place and Ohio Dominican slotted in fourth place.

The Eagles were given a predicted point total of 60, a big jump for a roster that lost plenty of key pieces in the offseason.

AU Football

Adversity is one word to describe the Ashland University football season in the 2022 campaign.

Just like the men’s soccer team, the football team struggled with COVID-19 issues. However, the team also took a harder hit.

Star quarterback Austin Brenner would go down with a gruesome injury where he would be taken from the field on a stretcher. This injury would instantly make a huge impact on the team. Not only was Brenner the starting quarterback and punter, but he was the team’s leader.

Brenner would be out the entirety of the season with his injury, and the team would rely on backup quarterbacks Trent Maddox and Cameron Blair to lead the team.

And while they were solid when on the field, the team did not look like themselves as they placed 5th in the conference.

The team finished the season with a record of 5-5, going 3-2 after Brenner’s injury, showcasing that the team still had a strong foundation to succeed in 2022.

AU brought in a multitude of first-year athletes and utilized a handful of redshirts in order to keep a strong supporting cast in the 2022 season.

Since coming back from his injury, Brenner decided to use his fifth year to come back to the team.

Teams around the GMAC took note of that and gave the Eagles two 1st-place finish votes for the upcoming campaign.

Where were the Eagles slotted?

In the GMAC preseason predictions, AU was given a confidence boost and was slotted as the No. 3 predicted team to finish the coming season. The Eagles were predicted to have 52 points to finish the season, just four points behind the first-place voted team, Findlay University. The only two teams ahead were Findlay with four 1st-place votes and Tiffin who received three 1st-place votes.