IRVINE, Calif. – During the last full season, Azusa Pacific was the top-ranked team in the NCAA West Super Region, and now the Cougars are preseason favorites for the 2021 season as they go a for a third-consecutive PacWest title.
 
Point Loma is second in the coaches poll with three first place-votes, while Concordia is third, followed by Fresno Pacific, Dominican and Biola. Dominican and Biola each got one first-place vote from the PacWest coaches ahead of the new season.
 

2021 PacWest Men’s Soccer Poll
1.	Azusa Pacific (6)	116
2.	Point Loma (3)	105
3.	Concordia	93
4.	Fresno Pacific	78
5.	Dominican (1)	68
6.	Biola (1)	65
7.	Hawai`i Pacific	63
8.	Chaminade	42
9.	Academy of Art	41
10.	Hawai`i Hilo	33
11.	Holy Names	22
First-place votes in parenthesis

Azusa Pacific’s James Ndubueze was voted the Preseason Player of the Year, while Orlando Lozano earned Defender of the Year and Brendan Fix Goalkeeper of the Year, giving the Cougars a clean sweep of the preseason honors. Azusa Pacific also has eight players that earned Preseason All-PacWest honors.
 
Azusa Pacific has won 71 PacWest matches since joining the conference, which is the most by any team in that span. The Cougars have won 22 conference matches in a row with their last defeat coming in 2017. Ndubueze was the PacWest Newcomer of the Year in 2018 and he led the conference in shots and goals in 2019. Lozano and Fix were each named Defender and Goalkeeper of the Year, respectively in 2019. They helped the Cougars’ defense hold opponents to less than one goal per game.
 
All eight of Azusa Pacific’s returning starters were named to the Preseason All-PacWest team. Ndubueze is joined on the front line by David Kwinn. The Cougars also have a trio of retuning midfielders that earned honors: Daniel Osei-tutu, Gregoire Diep and Renan Gomes. Fix and Lozano are joined on the defensive end by Leo Tomasi.
 
Point Loma went undefeated in the PacWest during the spring season, and the Sea Lions return most of their starting lineup for the 2021 season. Matthew Abangan, who is the reigning PacWest Defender of the Year, was named to the Preseason All-PacWest team, and Point Loma also added Townsend Meyers, who is a transfer from Notre Dame, where he was a starter for three seasons for the Fighting Irish. The Sea Lions received three of the first-place votes and also return the PacWest’s Goalkeeper of the Year for the spring season in Ryan Pierce.
 
Concordia is picked third by the PacWest coaches in the preseason poll. The Eagles took second place in the PacWest in 2019 with an 8-3 record and then finished in second place in the SoCal Pod in the spring season. Concordia is represented on the All-PacWest team by Elijah Amadin, who scored three goals in four matches for the Eagles last year.
 
Fresno Pacific won the NorCal Pod in the spring season and is now picked fourth in the preseason poll. The Sunbirds return reigning PacWest Player of the Year Fellipe Souza, who scored seven goals in five matches with three assists in the spring. In his career with the Sunbirds, he has scored 24 goals with 11 assists and seven game-winning goals. The three-time All-PacWest selection is just two goals away from cracking the top-20 in the PacWest record book for career goals, and he currently ranks 10th for career goals per game. Souza is joined on the Preseason All-PacWest Team by his teammate Caesar Angulo.
 
Dominican has 27 returners coming back from last season, including All-PacWest selections Brian Sanchez and Louie Galdamez. The Penguins are picked fifth followed by Biola, which is under new leadership. Joey O’Keefe takes over as Biola’s head coach and has eight returning starters from last season. O’Keefe also added transfer Daniel Simonis from Cal State LA. Simonis had the second most points for the Golden Eagles during the 2019 season as Cal State LA won the NCAA West Region and made it all the way to the National Championship match.
 
Hawai`i Pacific is picked seventh and represented on the All-PacWest preseason team by Gerrit Arzberger. The senior has 14 career goals and nine assists. He had three multi-goal games during the 2019 season, and twice had multiple assists in a match. Chaminade was voted eighth by the PacWest coaches followed by Academy of Art, Hawai`i Hilo and Holy Names. The Hawks will be under the leadership of Diego Marroquin this year, who joined the program this summer.
 
The season will start tomorrow with five PacWest teams competing in their season openers. Point Loma will host Cal State Dominguez Hills in the afternoon, and Concordia will be at Cal Poly Pomona. Azusa Pacific will host Simon Fraser, which is the preseason favorite in the GNAC. The Cougars will also face the CCAA preseason favorite Cal State LA on September 10. Concordia and Biola will also have chances to taking on the reigning national runner-up on September 15 and 18.
 
The PacWest season will star on September 25 with Point Loma making a trip to Fresno Pacific. Hawai`i Hilo will start its conference season hosting Azusa Pacific on September 29, while Concordia will host Point Loma. The regular season concludes on November 13 with Biola hosting Azusa Pacific and Fresno Pacific visiting Concordia.
 

2021 PRESEASON ALL-PACWEST MEN’S SOCCER AWARDS
Player of the Year	Defender of the Year	Goalkeeper of the Year
James Ndubueze Azusa Pacific	Orlando Lozano Azusa Pacific	Brendan Fix Azusa Pacific

 

2021 PRESEASON ALL-PACWEST MEN’S SOCCER TEAM
Name	School	Pos.	Yr.	Hometown/Previous School
Elihaj Amadin	Concordia	F	GS	Lake Forest, Calif./El Toro
David Kwinn	Azusa Pacific	F	Sr.	Alta Loma, Calif./Alta Loma
James Ndubueze	Azusa Pacific	F	Sr.	Paderborn, Germany/SC Paderborn 09
Fellipe Souza	Fresno Pacific	F	Sr.	Juiz de Fora, Brazil/West Hills
Gerrit Arzberger	Hawai`i Pacific	M	Sr.	Munich, Germany/Therese von Bayern
Gregoire Diep	Azusa Pacific	M	Jr.	Munich, Germany/FOS Ingolstadt
Renan Gomes	Azusa Pacific	M	Sr.	Rio De Janeiro, Brazil/Snow CC
Daniel Osei-tutu	Azusa Pacific	M	So.	Kumasi, Ghana/Kumasi
Matthew Abangan	Point Loma	D	So.	Glendora, Calif./Glendora
Caesar Angulo	Fresno Pacific	D	Jr.	Downey, Calif./Warren
Orlando Lozano	Azusa Pacific	D	Sr.	Cali, Colombia/Georgia Military
Leo Tomasi	Azusa Pacific	D	Sr.	Criciuma, Brazil/Marshalltown CC
Brendan Fix	Azusa Pacific	GK	Sr.	Huntington Beach, Calif./Edison