Syracuse field hockey picked No. 2 in ACC preseason poll

The Syracuse Orange field hockey team was picked No. 2 in the ACC by the conference’s seven head coaches. Additionally, Syracuse All-Americans Laura Hurff and Roos Weers were also named to the preseason All-ACC squad. Both players were All-ACC and All-America at the end of last year as well.

Weers, a junior, tallied 29 points last year on 11 goals and nine assists. She’s already the 16th-best goal scorer in program history, and could continue to climb that list this year and next.

Hurff tallied a career-high 16 points as a junior last year, and she’s also won a silver medal with the U.S. U21 roster at the Junior Pan-Am games.

The coaches voting for the conference’s projected standings broke down as follows:

1. North Carolina Tar Heels: 31 (one first-place vote)

2. Syracuse Orange: 27 (2)

2. Duke Blue Devils: 27 (2)

4. Louisville Cardinals: 22 (1)

5. Virginia Cavaliers: 21 (1)

6. Wake Forest Demon Deacons: 12

7. Boston College Eagles: 7

Not a whole lot of separation at the top there, clearly. Five different teams received first-place votes, and all of those squads are within 10 points of one another here. Virginia won last year’s ACC tournament, while Duke won the regular season title. Six out of seven teams made the NCAAs, with Wake being the lone team left out. UNC lost the title game to Delaware.

The Syracuse Orange field hockey schedule gets started out in my part of the country later this week. SU opens at California (can they get right back in this?), then fellow NorCal schools Pacific and UC Davis through Monday.