cover photo by Khoa Nguyen

Picking up from the end of last season's rankings, here are Everybody Soccer's preseason NCAA goalkeeping rankings, sorted by class. Ages may not be exact as some of their exact DOBs aren't listed but you get the idea.

#. Name (school) age

Seniors

1. Paul Blanchette (Loyola Marymount) 21.3

2. Matt Bersano (Penn State) 22.8

3. Zach Bennett (Michigan State) 21.6

4. Ashkan Khosravi (UC Riverside) 21.5

5. Alex McCauley (North Carolina State) 20.9

6. Wade Hamilton (Cal Poly) 20.8

7. Ryan Herman (Washington) 22.1

8. Matt Pacifici (Davidson) 21.9

9. Connor Sparrow (Creighton) 21.2

10. Chris Knaub (Bryant) 21.6

Notes: The top three return from PDL action and are looking ready to go this upcoming fall. Blanchette struggled to nail down the starting role at Loyola last fall but he should regain the number one role soon. Bersano is transferring from Oregon State to Penn State for his final year. Zach Bennett is looking for another strong run with Michigan State, who reached the quarterfinals last year. I interviewed Khosravi earlier this year. Of the rest, Hamilton is probably the most known as a USYNT product from the 2011 U17 team but the other five are more than capable to lead their schools into the final 48.

Juniors

1. Eric Klenofsky (Monmouth) 20.8

2. Grayson Rector (Belmont) 20.9

3. Alec Ferrell (Wake Forest) 21.3

4. David Greczek (Rutgers) 20.8

5. Ricky Brown (Colgate) 20.5

6. Andrew Epstein (Stanford) 19.5

7. Andrew Putna (UIC) 20.8

8. Nick Ciraldo (Cleveland State) 20.3

9. Andrew Tarbell (Clemson) 21.5

10. Will Steiner (Villanova) 20.9

Notes: Only four of these goalkeeper made the big dance last year so all the more reason to become familiar with these names now. Klenofsky leads the pack as an explosive 6'6" goalkeeper (watch here). Epstein carries the USYNT badge as the only 19 year old on the list. Coming from the Colorado Rapids academy, he is definitely playing above his grade. Red Bulls academy product David Greczek is looking help Rutgers get back above .500 this year.

Sophomores

1. Evan Louro (Michigan) 19.5

2. Jeff Caldwell (Virginia) 19.4

3. Paul Christensen (Portland) 19.3

4. Ben Willis (Gonzaga) 19.5

5. Eric Dick (Butler) 20.5

6. Aitor Blanco (Radford) 20.5

7. Adrian Remeniuk (Wisconsin) 19.6

8. Bobby Edwards (Saint Joseph's) 19.5

9. Josh Weiss (Siena) 19.4

10. Ben Lundgaard (Virginia Tech) 19.8

Notes: Perhaps the most star-studded cast: Louro, Caldwell, and Christensen have all been with the U20s. Most of these goalkeeper are looking to establish themselves as the starter for their respective schools, riding the bench for most of the year last year. There will be some rough bumps in the road but the potential is clearly there for each goalkeeper. Remeniuk looks to tie down the starting spot in Wisconsin and (another) 6'6" goalkeeper, Bobby Edwards returns after a successful year with St. Joe's.

Freshmen

1. Elliott Rubio (Akron) 18.9

2. Justin Vom Steeg (UC Santa Barbara) 18.3

3. Craig Duggan (South Carolina) 19.3

4. Carter Richardson (Wake Forest) 18.9

5. Cameron Keys (La Salle) 18.5

6. Charlie Furrer (Stanford) 18.4

7. Austin Aviza (Syracuse) 18.4

8. Hunter Harrison (Oral Roberts) 19.7

9. Tucker Schneider (SIUE) 18.3

10. James Pyle (North Carolina) 19.8

Notes: Most of these goalkeepers won't start many games. (Two of them have their team's starters higher on this list.) Still, many will go on to have successful tenures with their schools and likely afterwords as well. Aviza probably has the best chance of starting of all the 18 year olds but he's still very young for the job. Harrison, who I interviewed back in March, is older and if he gets his feet under him he will thrive. Half of the group have MLS connections: Richardson (Columbus), Keys (Philadelphia), Furrer (Dallas), Aviza (New England), and Schneider (Colorado).