Full poll

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Looking to make the 26th NCAA tournament in program history, Santa Clara women's soccer was ranked No. 21 in the National Soccer Coaches Association of America's (NSCAA) preseason poll. Santa Clara is joined by BYU (No. 16) and LMU (No. 25) from the West Coast Conference.

The Broncos finished last season at No. 20 in the country after advancing to the second round of the NCAA tournament before falling in a close match against Arizona.

"We're really happy to see three West Coast Conference teams in the top-25," said Santa Clara head coach Jerry Smith. "We have a very tough conference with other teams that will work their way in. Our first nine opponents played in the NCAA tournament last year so we'll see right away if we're really a top-25 team. We look forward to living up to our own expectations as a program and hopefully we'll be ranked highly at the end of the season."

Four of the Broncos first nine games come against teams ranked (No. 11 USC, No. 18 Cal, No. 13 Notre Dame, and No. 5 Stanford) with eight of those nine against teams that received votes (Washington, Washington State, Wisconsin, and Minnesota). All nine games will be against teams that made the NCAA Tournament a year ago.

Santa Clara opens its season with an exhibition vs. Seattle on Aug. 11 at 7:30 p.m. at Stevens Stadium before opening the regular season vs. USC Aug. 19 at 7:30 p.m. at home.