JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. — Carson-Newman College overachieved in 2009, winning its second straight South Atlantic Conference regular season title and advancing to its seventh consecutive NCAA Division II tournament. While the Eagles may have been able to sneak up on opponents last season, this year, everyone is ready.

Carson-Newman opens the season ranked No. 20 in the NSCAA preseason poll and is the consensus pick to win the SAC.

"If you would have told us that we would have started four freshman and win the league and make the second round of the SAC tournament, I would have said you were crazy," C-N head coach Allen Vital said. "The key to our success lies within the guys we have returning. We're returning 15 players and they all contributed. They worked extremely hard in the spring and played their roles."

Pulling a three-peat as SAC champions won't be easy. The conference is already loaded with teams consistently ranked in the Top 25 including Wingate, Lincoln Memorial and 2009 SAC tournament champion Tusculum College. To make matters even tougher, No. 14-ranked Anderson (S.C.) University has joined the SAC this season. The Trojans knocked Carson-Newman out of the NCAA D-II tournament last season with a 2-1 victory in the opening round.

Senior All-SAC goalkeeper and captain Jordan Moore is fired up to face Anderson again.

"To fall in the national tournament to Anderson was pretty tough," Moore said. "We're lucky that they're in our conference this year and we get to play them again. Hopefully it will be a new rivalry."

Moore is one of seven Eagles picked for the All-SAC team. Moore is joined on the second team by junior defender Anthony Chiapetta (Morristown, Tenn.) and senior defender Ben Backstrom (Knoxville, Tenn.). First teamers are junior forward Robert Hill (Middlesbrough, England), senior midfielder Richard Marquetty (New York, N.Y.) and defenders sophomore Adam Thomas (Morristown, Tenn.) and senior Matthew Finlay (Liverpool, England). Sophomore midfielder Daniel Zitt (Morristown, Tenn.) was a key contributor, scoring three goals with six assists.

This season is Finlay's last chance and the taste of the tournament last year has him more focused than ever.

"It's completely changed our goals," Finlay said. "We won the SAC last year and that's a great achievement, but we want more. Our eyes are fixed on a national championship. If we don't achieve that, then we haven't reached our full potential. That's where the bar is set."

Several newcomers should help on Carson-Newman's title quest including freshmen Blake Farmer (Franklin, Tenn.), Tyson Adkinson (Franklin, Tenn.) and Kevin Hensley (Collierville, Tenn.) and key transfers led by Emmanuel Aboagye.

"We have a lot of young guys that have played in a lot of big high school games," Finlay said. "We're gelling, but it's taking some time. Preseason is always rough, but we're coming together."

Still, the Eagles are a young team and regardless where their fellow SAC teams expect them to finish, they still have to prove it on the field.

"We're working extremely hard," Vital said. "We have a mix of a good core of returning players, but overall we're a very young team. We think we have a lot of potential."

The Eagles open their season on Sept. 2 when they host St. Leo University at McCown Field. Game time is 6 p.m.