KANSAS CITY, MO – The defending national champion Johns Hopkins women's soccer team is ranked number one in the United Soccer Coaches (USC) Preseason Poll it was recently announced.  This is the first time Johns Hopkins has been ranked number one in the USC's preseason poll; previously, the highest the Blue Jays have been ranked in the preseason was third (2012).
 
The Blue Jays posted a 23-0-2 record and won the program's first NCAA Championship in 2022.  After starting the season with a 2-0-2 record through four games, Johns Hopkins won its final 21 games to claim its first title.  Case Western, which Johns Hopkins topped, 2-1, in the national championship game, is ranked second in the preseason poll, while Messiah is ranked third.  The Blue Jays knocked off the Falcons, 4-1, in the NCAA Semifinals last season.
 
The number one ranking marks the second time Johns Hopkins has earned the top spot in the poll as the Blue Jays ended the 2022 season ranked number one after winning the national championship.  Dating back to the start of the 2018 season, the Blue Jays have been ranked in the top 10 in 39 of the last 42 USC polls and Hopkins' streak of consecutive top 20 rankings extends back 59 polls to the middle of the 2016 season.
 
Johns Hopkins is the only Centennial Conference team to appear in the top 25 and the Blue Jays have a pair of teams on their 2023 schedule that appear in the poll (Messiah-3^rd / Scranton-16^th).
 
USC Division III Women's Soccer Preseason Top 25
1-Johns Hopkins, 2-Case Western, 3-Messiah, 4-Virginia Wesleyan, 5-Misericordia, 6-Christopher Newport, 7-William Smith, 8-Carnegie Mellon, 9-Trinity (TX), 10-Washington St. Louis, 11-Amherst, 12-Williams, 13-Wisconsin La Crosse, 14-Emory, 15-Loras, 16-Scranton, 17-Montclair State, 18-MIT, 19-Calvin, 20-Pacific Lutheran, 21-SUNY Cortland, 22-Trinity (CT), 23-Wartburg, 24-Tufts, 25-Mary Hardin-Baylor.