ACC Men’s Soccer: UVA picked third in 2026 preseason coaches poll

NC State, the preseason #2 team nationally, is the favorite to win the 2026 ACC Men’s Soccer regular-season title, with the UVA Soccer team picked third.

The ACC office released the preseason picks from its polling of the league’s 15 men’s soccer coaches on Wednesday.

Virginia finished its 2025 season with a 12-2-5 overall mark, and a 5-0-3 record in ACC play, but the postseason ended prematurely – with a PK loss to UNC Greensboro in the first round of the 2025 NCAA Tournament.

NC State and UVA are among four ACC teams are ranked in the preseason United Soccer Coaches Top 25: NC State (No. 2), Stanford (No. 9), Virginia (No. 11) and SMU (No. 15).

The 2026 ACC Men’s Soccer regular season officially gets under way on Thursday, Aug. 20.

League play begins on Friday, Sept. 4.

2026 ACC Men’s Soccer Coaches Poll

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1. NC State (8), 183
2. Stanford (2), 171
3. Virginia (4), 161
4. SMU, 146
5. Clemson (1), 145
6. North Carolina, 134
7. Duke, 124
8. Notre Dame, 100
9. Wake Forest, 89
10. Syracuse, 86
11. Pitt, 83
12. Virginia Tech, 60
13. California, 48
14. Louisville, 29
15. Boston College, 16

First-place votes in parentheses

2026 ACC Men’s Soccer Watch List

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• Andrej Borak, So., GK, Boston College
• Florentino Junior, Fr., M, California
• Ransford Gyan, Jr., M, Clemson
• Ulfur Bjornsson, Sr., F, Duke
• Ryan Quintos, Sr., D, Louisville
• Joschi Schelb, Sr., F, North Carolina
• Tyler Caton, Sr., M, NC State
• Nolan Spicer, Sr., M, Notre Dame
• Niklas Sørensen, Jr., D, Pitt
• Stephan Soghomonian, Jr., F, SMU
• Dylan Groeneveld, Sr., D, Stanford
• Kelvin Da Costa, Jr., M, Syracuse
• Sebastian Pop, Sr., D, Virginia
• Yanis Belatrache, Sr., M, Virginia Tech
• Jeffrey White, Sr., M, Wake Forest