ST. LOUIS – The University of Evansville women's soccer team was named the 2015 Missouri Valley Conference favorites in the annual Preseason Coaches' Poll released by the MVC on Monday. UE has won six MVC Regular Season Championships and six MVC Tournament Championships in program history. The Purple Aces are also hosting the 2015 MVC Championship in Evansville November 6-8 at Arad McCutchan Stadium.
 
MVC Release
MVC Preseason Video

Four UE student-athletes also received preseason honors as junior midfielder Brownyn Boswell, senior goalkeeper Simone Busby, and sophomore forward Montana Portenier were named to the preseason All-Conference Team. Sophomore midfielder/forward Nicki Baham received honorable mention.
 
Evansville finished 11-6-3 in 2014 with the second best mark in the MVC regular season. The Aces were also runner-ups to Illinois State in the regular season and conference tournament championship last season.
 
Coach Krista McKendree's team will look to stop the two-time Illinois State Redbirds run as MVC regular season champions.
 
The Aces return 19 letterwinners (nine starters) from last year's team. Some of UE's key returners include Boswell (2014 team leader in goals, 2014 MVC First Team), Busby (two time MVC Goalkeeper of the Year) and Portenier (2014 MVC All-Freshman Team). Other returning starters include senior midfielder Allie Arguello, junior midfielder Colleen Dierkes, junior defender Emily Richardson, sophomore defender Olivia Schafer, senior forward Kayla Smith and senior defender/midfielder Abby Springer.
 
Additionally, Evansville also has seven freshmen including defender Morgan Langhammer, midfielder Molly Lear, forward/midfielder Tess Lombard, midfielder Paige Niemeier, midfielder/forward Jess O'Shaughnessy, forward Sara Osinski and defender/forward Sierra Pagan.

UE starts the regular season at home against Xavier on Friday, August 21. The match will be held at Arad McCutchan Stadium and begin at 7:00 p.m. CDT.

For all of the latest information on University of Evansville women's soccer, log on to the sport page on GoPurpleAces.com or follow the program on Twitter via @UEAthleticsWSOC. For more information on giving to UE Athletics or its individual athletics programs, visit the DONATE tab on the top of GoPurpleAces.com . To purchase tickets for University of Evansville athletics events, log on to GoPurpleAces.com and click on the TICKETS tab on top of the page.