College Soccer in Georgia, Preseason Notes from Around the State

• Georgia's women have the highest preseason ranking in program history, coming in at #14 in the United Soccer Coaches poll. 2023 was a historic season for the Bulldogs, winning their first ever SEC Tournament championship and reaching the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament where they were eliminated in a penalty shootout at Clemson.

• Forward Hailey Gordon of Georgia has recently been called up for Mexico's U20 training camp ahead of the World Cup.

• Other preseason rankings for Georgia schools include Emory's men coming in at #20 in D3, Clayton State's men ranked #16 in D2, while two D2 women's schools were ranked with Columbus State at #23 and North Georgia at #24.

• Sade Heinrichs, Georgia Southern's legendary defender, will be starting her professional career this fall in Portugal with CS Maritimo. Former Eagles Isabel Kopp and Elis Nemtsov also recently signed professional contracts.

• Aaliyah Faddoul of Georgia State was named the Sun Belt Conference Preseason Offensive Player of the Year as well as being named to the Preseason All-Conference team. We had the chance to catch up with her at media day this week and asked her about being named the Freshman of the Year in the conference last year:

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/95a33d_e6d5d20768004c32895a8e7ccd0b9b4f/480p/mp4/file.mp4