By R.L. Bynum

Both North Carolina soccer teams are in the top 10 of their respective United Soccer Coaches Top 25 preseason polls that the ACC tops and dominates.

The Tar Heels’ men’s team is one of five ACC teams in the top 10 at No. 6, while the UNC women’s team is one of four top-10 ACC teams at No. 8. Clemson’s men (15–3–5 last season) are No. 1 and Florida State’s reigning national champion women (22–0–1) are No. 1 in the polls released Tuesday.

Coach Carlos Somoano’s men’s team, which hosts an exhibition game against Campbell at 7 p.m. Saturday and opens the season at UAB on Aug. 22, went 11–4–7 last season and advanced to the third round of the NCAA tournament.

Coach Anson Dorrance’s women’s team, which beat DC Power 5–1 in a Sunday exhibition, hosts Davidson in a 1 p.m. exhibition on Saturday and opens the season at Denver on Aug. 15, went 13–2–8 a year ago and lost in the NCAA quarterfinals.

Other ACC men’s teams in the poll are No. 2 Notre Dame, No. 5 Stanford, No. 10 SMU, No. 13 Virginia, No. 15 Wake Forest, No. 20 Duke, and No. 25 Syracuse. Other league teams in the women’s poll are No. 2 Stanford, No. 5 Clemson, No. 7 Pittsburgh, No. 15 Notre Dame and No. 24 Duke.

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Top 25 men’s poll

Rank	School	Previous	W–L–T (2023)
1	Clemson	1	15–3–5
2	Notre Dame	2	13–3–6
3	West Virginia	3	17–3–4
4	Oregon State	4	11–6–5
5	Stanford	5	11–4–5
6	North Carolina	6	11–4–7
7	Indiana	7	15–4–5
8	Marshall	8	18–3–0
9	New Hampshire	9	13–3–4
10	SMU	10	14–3–2
11	Loyola Marymount	11	10–5–6
12	Western Michigan	12	17–1–4
13	Virginia	13	11–4–4
14	Vermont	14	13–6–2
15	Wake Forest	15	11–3–5
16	Georgetown	16	13–3–3
17	Hofstra	17	14–3–5
18	James Madison	18	10–5–5
19	Central Florida	19	10–4–2
20	Duke	20	11–4–3
21	UCLA	21	9–4–5
22	Portland	22	12–5–0
23	Seattle	23	12–4–3
24	Louisville	24	12–6–3
25	Syracuse	25	9–5–7

Also receiving votes: Bryant (9), Kentucky (7), Denver (6), Missouri State (5), San Diego (4) and Memphis (1)

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Top 25 women’s poll

Rank	School	Previous	1st-place votes	Poll points	W-L-T (2023)
1	Florida State	1	8	200	22–0–1
2	Stanford	2	0	190	20–1–4
3	BYU	4	0	178	20–3–3
4	Penn State	5	0	170	16–3–4
5	Clemson	3	0	155	18–4–4
6	Nebraska	7	0	139	17–4–3
7	Pittsburgh	6	0	137	17–6–1
8	N. Carolina	8	0	128	13–2–8
8	Texas Tech	9	0	128	16–2–5
10	Memphis	10	0	125	20–2–0
11	UCLA	15	0	111	16–2–1
12	Saint Louis	11	0	109	19–3–2
13	Michigan St.	12	0	105	14–5–3
14	Georgia	13	0	104	13–4–6
15	Notre Dame	16	0	90	12–4–4
16	Arkansas	17	0	87	15–5–2
17	Texas	18	0	77	17–5–2
18	Mississippi St.	14	0	74	12–6–5
19	Wisconsin	19	0	57	14–5–4
20	Alabama	22	0	41	12–5–5
21	S. Carolina	21	0	29	12–3–6
22	Santa Clara	23	0	26	14–5–2
23	USC	25	0	24	11–5–3
24	Duke	NR	0	15	6–7–3
25	Iowa	24	0	13	13–5–4
25	Texas A&M	RV	0	13	10–8–4

Also receiving votes: Princeton (8), Brown (7), TCU (5), Georgetown (3), Virginia (3) and Wake Forest (3)

Photo courtesy of UNC Athletics