The Midwest Conference released its 2025 Men's Soccer Preseason Coaches Poll Tuesday morning and the Foresters were atop the rankings.

Voting is done by the MWC head men's soccer coaches. Each coach votes for the other eight schools in the league in order of predicted finish. Points are assigned in reverse order of voting (eight points for first, seven for second, etc.). Coaches may not vote for their own teams.

The Foresters received seven of the nine first place votes while Illinois College and Ripon College netted one apiece. Lake Forest's 62 points were nine ahead of second-place Illinois College while Knox College was third with 49 and Ripon fourth with 43, one more than Grinnell College.

In 2024 the Foresters posted a 7-0-1 record in league play to capture their second conference championship in the last three years and league record 19th in program history. They also won the MWC Tournament and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the third year in a row, sixth time in the last 12 seasons, and 11th time in program history.

Lake Forest returns six all-conference players, including First Team All-MWC midfielder Peter Cirbo, defender Alexis Flores, and goalkeeper Andrew Swacha. They helped the team outscore league opponents 30-9 over the course of 10 regular season and conference tournament games.

Under the direction of 10th-year head coach Dan Andrews, the Foresters will officially open the 2025 season against visiting Saint Mary's University this Saturday at 1:00 p.m. The team's league schedule will begin with a home game against Knox College on Saturday, September 27, and conclude on November 1 at Monmouth College. The top four teams in the conference will advance to the MWC Tournament, which will be hosted by the league champion November 7-8.
 

PLACE	TEAM (First Place Votes)	POINTS
1	Lake Forest College (7)	62
2	Illinois College (1)	53
3	Knox College	49
4	Ripon College (1)	43
5	Grinnell College	42
6	Cornell College	30
7	Lawrence University	17
8t	Beloit College	14
8t	Monmouth College	14