The Midwest Conference released its 2017 Women's Soccer Coaches Poll on Tuesday and Lake Forest College was in second place, just two points behind the leader.
Voting is done by the MWC head women's soccer coaches. Each coach votes for the other nine schools in the league in order of predicted finish. Points are assigned in reverse order of voting (nine points for first, eight for second, etc.). Coaches may not vote for their own teams.
The Foresters finished with 73 points in the poll, just two fewer than defending league champion Knox College. Lake Forest and Knox each garnered four first place votes with St. Norbert College, who was third in the rankings had the other two.
Lake Forest returns 2016 MWC Defensive Player of the Year and Third Team All-North Region selection Shari Jacobson. Head coach T.R. Bell also welcomes back four of the team's top five scorers from a year ago. .
The Foresters will officially open the 2017 season against Calvin College at Milwaukee School of Engineering on Friday, September 1. The team will open league play in Iowa at Cornell College on Saturday, September 23, and at Grinnell College the next day. The regular season will conclude at Ripon College on Saturday, October 28, and the top four teams in the conference will qualify for the MWC Tournament, which will be hosted by the league champion November 3-4.
Lake Forest has claimed MWC titles in three of the last five years and six times overall. The team has also won the MWC Tournament twice in the last five seasons and three times in program history.
| PLACE | TEAM (First Place Votes) | POINTS |
| 1 | Knox College (4) | 75 |
| 2 | Lake Forest College (4) | 73 |
| 3 | St. Norbert College (2) | 65 |
| 4 | Grinnell College | 63 |
| 5 | Ripon College | 46 |
| 6t | Illinois College | 38 |
| 6t | Monmouth College | 38 |
| 8 | Beloit College | 22 |
| 9 | Cornell College | 18 |
| 10 | Lawrence University | 13 |
