BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Gulf South Conference has released its 2023 Preseason Coaches Poll with Montevallo voted to finish seventh in the league while four Falcons were named to the Newcomer Watchlist.
 
The Falcons were picked seventh in the league after finishing the 2022 campaign as the fourth seed in the conference tournament with an 8-5-3 overall record and a 7-4 mark in conference play. Montevallo enters the season after boasting a top-five offense in the GSC with 30 goals for and a .75 margin of victory. UM's backline also headlined a top-four defense with just 18 goals allowed and a .775 save percentage with 62 total saves.

"Rankings are rankings," said head coach Bruce Dietterle  They're only a number so, for me, it's not about this one its about where we finish at the end of the season. Respectfully, I think we're better than seventh but its our job to porve to everybody in the run of play that we are better than seventh. We lost a lot of guys. It's a new group, new team, new culture. This is just bulletin board material that we can look up and say that we need to the world and the region that we are better than seventh."
 
Montevallo's 2023 recruiting class saw three Falcons included on the 2023 Newcomer Watchlist. Alvaro Martin Lopez, a junior transfer from USC-Upstate, scored three goals last season on 13 shots in 974 minutes played in his career before becoming a Falcon. Branko Buljan Ivelich landed on the watchlist after playing one season at forward for Lindenwood where he scored one goal on four shots. Dawid Adamski, a former midfielder for Catawba, rounded out the selections for the Falcons.
 
The Falcons will kick off the 2023 regular season on August 31 when Montevallo travels to Franklin Springs, Ga. to take on Emmanuel College at 4 p.m.