Men’s Soccer ranked No. 15 in final United Soccer Coaches Poll of 2023 season
By Wes Mayberry
| United Soccer Coaches Division III Top 25 Poll – Final |
ADA — The Ohio Northern men's soccer team is ranked No. 15 in the final United Soccer Coaches NCAA Division III Top 25 Poll of the 2023 season, which was released on Tuesday.
This marks the Polar Bears' first appearance in the poll since being ranked No. 13 in the 2023 preseason poll.
Northern ranked as high as No. 11 last season and finished at No. 13.
National champion St. Olaf (Minn.) is the top-ranked team in the poll followed by runner-up Amherst (Mass.), Washington and Lee (Va.), Washington (Md.) and Middlebury (Vt.).
The Polar Bears finished the 2023 season with a 13-6-4 overall record and were second in the Ohio Athletic Conference with a 7-1-1 mark in conference play. They won the Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament championship for the eighth time in program history and advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Division III Tournament for the second straight year and fifth time overall.
The Polar Bears played six games this season against teams ranked in the final poll in No. 6 Colorado College, No. 11 Calvin (Mich.), No. 18 Messiah (Pa.), No. 19 Kenyon and No. 23 Ohio Wesleyan and two others against teams in the "also receiving votes" category in North Central (Ill.) and John Carroll.
Northern opened its NCAA Tournament run this year by advancing past host Lynchburg (Va.) in a penalty kick shootout before defeating then-No. 1 Messiah 1-0.
In the Sweet 16, the Polar Bears fell 1-0 to Colorado College at host Tufts (Mass.) in a rematch of a regular-season game that ended in a 1-1 draw in Ada.
After the season, the United Soccer Coaches named senior Will Shaffer (Galena/St. Francis DeSales) and juniors Ryan Sommerfeld (Dublin/Coffman) and Brenden Gervers (Grand Blanc, Mich.) to the All-Region VII Second Team and head coach Chris Matejka and his staff as the Region VII Coaching Staff of the Year.
United Soccer Coaches Top 25 - Final
Dec. 5, 2023
| Rank | School | Last | Final 2023 Record |
| 1. | St. Olaf (Minn.) | 11 | 20-3-3 |
| 2. | Amherst (Mass.) | 13 | 16-3-4 |
| 3. | Washington & Lee (Va.) | NR | 15-4-6 |
| 4. | Washington (Md.) | 18 | 13-3-6 |
| 5. | Middlebury (Vt.) | 3 | 14-2-4 |
| 6. | Colorado College | 16 | 15-3-3 |
| 7. | Chicago (Ill.) | 21 | 11-3-6 |
| 8. | Connecticut College | 7 | 12-2-6 |
| 9. | Mary Washington (Va.) | 2 | 18-1-2 |
| 10. | Tufts (Mass.) | 20 | 14-4-3 |
| 11. | Calvin (Mich.) | 10 | 18-2-2 |
| 12. | Montclair State (N.J.) | 5 | 19-2-1 |
| 13. | SUNY Cortland | 6 | 15-2-2 |
| 14. | Occidental (Calif.) | NR | 15-3-3 |
| 15. | Ohio Northern | NR | 13-6-4 |
| 16. | Wisconsin-Eau Claire | NR | 13-5-2 |
| 17. | Franklin & Marshall (Pa.) | 8 | 14-3-3 |
| 18. | Messiah (Pa.) | 1 | 20-1-1 |
| 19. | Kenyon | 17 | 16-4-1 |
| 20. | Emory (Ga.) | 9 | 12-3-4 |
| 21. | Carleton (Minn.) | 12 | 15-3-2 |
| 22. | Case Western Reserve | NR | 10-3-3 |
| 23. | Ohio Wesleyan | NR | 13-6-1 |
| 24. | Johns Hopkins (Md.) | NR | 13-5-4 |
| 25. | SUNY Oneonta | 23 | 15-4-3 |
Also receiving votes: University of Wisconsin-Platteville, Trinity University (Texas), Christopher Newport University, Babson College, North Central College, University of Rochester, Stevens Institute of Technology, Pacific Lutheran University, John Carroll University, Gustavus Adolphus College.