SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — The Big West announced its 2026 Men's Soccer Preseason Coaches' Poll and Team on Wednesday, with UC Santa Barbara at the top of the pile as preseason favorites for the title. The Gauchos earned first-place votes from four of the other six head coaches in the seven-team conference and placed three student athletes on the 11-player Preseason Coaches' Team: defender Calle Mollerberg, midfielder Kaden Standish and forward Donovan Sessoms.
 
UC Santa Barbara topped the table in 2025, going undefeated in their nine conference contests to claim The Big West Regular Season Championship. The Gauchos went on to host The Big West Championship Final for a second consecutive season, though they ultimately came up short. They narrowly edged out defending champions UC Irvine to claim the top spot in this year's preseason poll.
 
Mollerberg captained last season's squad to one of the best defensive seasons in program history, playing more minutes than any other Gaucho in 2025 en route to earning Big West Defender of the Year honors. The swede will wear the armband again in 2026 and has been named to the United Soccer Coaches Division I Players to Watch list for this season. Forward Donovan Sessoms, a new arrival after two years of tearing up the conference for Sacramento State, joins Mollerberg on the USC Players to Watch list as well; he was the Hornets' leading points scorer and an All-Big West Second Team honoree last season. The Gauchos will expect him to repeat that performance and perhaps hope that he will recreate his tremendous 10-goal campaign from 2024, which saw him earn All-Big West First Team honors. Standish may not have picked up USC acclaim like his two contemporaries, but he was an All-Big West First Team member in 2025, and Zac Siebenlist is the only Gaucho on this year's roster who tallied more points than Standish's nine (three goals and three assists) last season. Goalkeeper Owen Beninga was left off The Big West Preseason Coaches' Team despite being one of just eight netminders nationwide on the USC D-I Players to Watch List.
 
UC Santa Barbara will host one final preseason tune-up on Friday, Aug. 14 against LMU before officially opening their 2026 season on Aug. 21 against San Jose State at Harder Stadium. Season and single-game tickets are on sale now and can be purchased online, in person or by phone at (805) 893-UCSB (8272).
 
2026 Preseason Coaches' Poll

1. UC Santa Barbara – 34 (4)
2. UC Irvine – 32 (2)
3. Utah Valley – 24
4. Cal State Fullerton – 23 (1)
5. CSUN – 17
6. Cal State Bakersfield – 11
7. Sacramento State – 6

 
2026 Preseason Coaches' Team
Toke Amtrup – Defender – Utah Valley
Filip Arras – Defender – Cal State Bakersfield
Jose de la Torre – Midfielder – Cal State Fullerton
Dorian Drucks – Goalkeeper – CSUN
Zenden Hart – Goalkeeper – Cal State Bakersfield
Calle Mollerberg – Defender – UC Santa Barbara
Isaac Powell – Defender – UC Irvine
Donovan Sessoms – Forward – UC Santa Barbara
Kaden Standish – Midfielder – UC Santa Barbara
Brady Treinen – Midfielder – UC Irvine
Fernando Valenzuela – Midfielder – Cal State Fullerton