Chairs, Woods Tabbed to Preseason All-SoCon

SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Mercer's Wesley Chairs and Ashton Wood were named to the Southern Conference's preseason all-league team and the Bears were selected to finish fourth among the conference's six teams.

Chairs - a junior defender - forced 12 turnovers in the 2021 and recorded a season-high of three versus Jacksonville in March. The Ellicott City, Md. product was one of four defensemen to make the list, joining Colin Hinton and Dixon Smith of Jacksonville and Richmond's Ray Baran. Chairs scooped 23 ground balls, including grabbing five of them in a game on three separate occasions. The defender started all 12 games for the Orange & Black in 2021.

The lone faceoff specialist on the SoCon's preseason squad – Wood – the senior from St. Augustine, Fla. had the NCAA's 11^th highest percentage at 62.9% (193-for-307) in 2021. Creating chances for the Orange & Black, he won at 10 faceoffs on 11 occasions and notched 15 in nine games. In the season finale, he grabbed 16 groundballs, which was a season best. His 10.00 groundballs per game placed him third in Division I a season ago, behind just Lehigh's Mike Sisselberger and Saint Joseph's' Zach Cole. He led the league in both ground balls per game and faceoff win percentage.

The league's six coaches voted High Point – the defending champion - to the number one spot, garnering four of the six first-place votes. Richmond placed second and collected the remaining two first place tallies. Jacksonville, Mercer, VMI and Hampton rounded out the poll.

2022 Preseason Southern Conference Coaches Poll
Team (1st-place votes) Total
1. High Point (4)               24
2. Richmond (2)               22
3. Jacksonville                 17
4. Mercer                         12
5. VMI                              10
6. Hampton                       5

2022 Preseason All-Southern Conference team
A             Asher Nolting, 5th, High Point
A             Ryan Lanchbury, Gr., Richmond
A             Dalton Young, Jr., Richmond
M            Hunter Vines, Sr., High Point
M            Jack Dolan, Gr., Jacksonville
M            Luke Frankeny, Gr., Richmond
D             Colin Hinton, Gr., Jacksonville
D             Dixon Smith, Gr., Jacksonville
D             Wesley Chairs, Jr., Mercer
D             Ray Baran, R-Sr., Richmond
GK          Jason Yoquinto, Gr., Jacksonville
FO          Ashton Wood, Sr., Mercer
SSM        Trejan Cannon, Sr., VMI
LSM        Jordan Young, R-Jr., Jacksonville

Mercer will open its 2022 campaign next Saturday (Jan. 29) against Bellarmine from Five Star Stadium, followed by a visit from Bucknell a week later Feb. 5.
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Players Mentioned

Wesley Chairs

Ashton Wood

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