SAN ANTONIO - Midwestern State seniors Hanna Staley and Mallory Whitworth earned top honors as the defending Lone Star Conference champion Mustangs were picked to finish second in the league's preseason poll of coaches, sports information directors and selected media as released Tuesday afternoon.
 
Staley, a two-time All American, was named the defensive player of the year while Whitworth was tabbed the league's top goalkeeper after helping MSU to nine shutouts last season.
 
The Mustangs return seven starters and 15 letter winners off of last season's 14-6-2 squad which finished second in the league before breaking up Abilene Christian's unbeaten season with a 2-1 win in the conference finals.
 
MSU returns its entire back line as senior Megan Barnhart, sophomore Callie Briseno and junior Anna Molen join Staley for a unit that limited the opposition to a 0.70 goals against average.
 
Senior Maddie Fraser is the lone returner in the midfield after scoring one goal and dishing out seven assists while sophomore Payton Fookes (2 goals, 2 assists) started 16 games at the forward position in 2011.
 
ACU received 15 of the 19 first-place vote to top the poll followed by MSU, Texas A&M-Commerce (1 first-place vote), Angelo State, Eastern New Mexico, West Texas A&M, Incarnate Word and Texas Woman's.
 
ACU junior Andrea Carpenter is the league's preseason offensive player of the year after leading the league with 16 goals last season.
 
Midwestern State opens the season with a pair of home matches against Fort Lewis (Colo.) and Colorado Mesa as part of the MSU Classic on Aug. 31 and Sep. 2 at the MSU Soccer Field.
   

Place	Team (1st votes)	Points
1	Abilene Christian (15)	148
2	Midwestern State (3)	134
3	Texas A&M-Commerce (1)	101
4	Angelo State	78
5	Eastern New Mexico	74
6	West Texas A&M	70
7	Incarnate Word	46
8	Texas Woman's	33