SAN ANTONIO – The Angelo State soccer team has been picked fourth in the Lone Star Conference preseason poll with Abilene Christian picked to win the 2012 championship.
 
Angelo State advanced to its second straight postseason last year before falling in penalty kicks to Texas A&M-Commerce. ASU returns five seniors, including Lauren Carnes and Hanna Horeis who both earned LSC postseason honors last season.
     
ACU won the LSC regular season crown in 2011 after posting a 20-2-1 overall and 13-0-1 conference mark.  It was the Wildcats first regular season title since starting the program five years ago.

Three Lone Star Conference women's soccer standouts were tabbed for 2012 preseason honor. Abilene Christian's Andrea Carpenter was tabbed Offensive Player of the Year, while Midwestern State picked up two of the awards with Defensive Player of the Year Hanna Staley and Goalkeeper of the Year Mallory Whitworth.

With 15 of 19 first-place votes, ACU was picked ahead of reigning conference champion Midwestern State with 148 total points.  The Mustangs earned the three first-place nods for a 134-point tally. Texas A&M-Commerce finished third with 101 and the remaining first-place nod, while Angelo State was fourth (78), Eastern New Mexico fifth (74), West Texas A&M sixth (70), Incarnate Word seventh (46) and Texas Woman's (33) eighth.
 
The 2012 soccer season starts on August 30 with ASU traveling to play at Texas-Permian Basin. ASU hosts New Mexico Highlands on Sept. 1 in its first home match of the season. 
 
Each of the eight LSC teams will play the other twice during the regular season, with the results of those contests to be used in determining the seeds for a six-team postseason conference tournament.  This year's tournament will be hosted by the No. 1 seed November 1-2-4, 2012.