AMHERST, N.Y. - The Daemen College men's soccer team has been picked to finish 11th this season in a vote of the East Coast Conference head coaches released today in the league's annual preseason poll.

Daemen recorded 18 points in the poll, finishing behind 10th place St. Thomas Aquinas College (39 points) and ninth place Mercy College (43 points).  Long Island University Post received nine of 11 first place votes to sit atop the poll with 119 points.  The Pioneers went 16-5-2 last season, and they are followed by defending league champion New York Institute of Technology who received one first place vote.  NYIT went 14-3-1 overall last season, and ended the Pioneers' quest for a three-peat with a 1-0 win in the ECC Championship Game.

Dowling College (89 points) came in third in the poll while University of Bridgeport and University of the District of Columbia (74 points) tied for fourth.  Molloy College picked up the lone remaining first place vote and totaled 63 points to rank sixth.  The Lions were followed by seventh-place Roberts Wesleyan College (54 points) and eighth-place Queens College (46 points).

Daemen will embark on their first season under new head coach Dan Dolan in 2015.  Dolan's squad is coming off a 2014 season that saw them go 5-10 overall, and 2-8 in the ECC, establishing a new program record for total wins versus NCAA Division II opponents (5) and ECC wins.  The Wildcats will welcome back four of their six goal-scorers from a season ago, including leading scorer Cole Beale (Hamburg, N.Y./Hamburg) who totaled five goals, one assist and 11 points.  Also back is striker Alex Reid (Lockport, N.Y./Lockport), now a junior, who has totaled 23 points in 31 career games over his first two seasons.

"I am really looking forward to the upcoming season," Dolan said.  "The ECC is a league that presents significant challenges, and it hasn't been easy on our program being the new kids on the block.  With that being said, I really feel as if our team is on the rise and we're looking forward to surprising some people this season."

The 2015 season marks the first in which Daemen is eligible to qualify for the ECC tournament, and the NCAA tournament.  The ECC tournament will feature the top four teams in the final regular season standings as they'll vie for an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.  The conference tourney begins Nov. 4 and concludes Nov. 6 with all games played at the higher seed.

Daemen will officially kickoff its 2015 season on Saturday, Sept. 5 when they visit Slippery Rock University for a 3:30 p.m. start.