Starting this Thursday the 2015 CIS Men's Soccer Tournament will take place at York University in Toronto. The tournament was held in Moncton, New Brunswick in 2014 with York winning the Championship over fellow OUA side McMaster. Both York and McMaster return to the tournament this year by making it to the OUA Final which I attended. The game saw York's stars stand out with goals from Jerek Whiteman on a 30 yard screamer and Michael Cox winning the game on a header with only two minutes left in the game.

Although York and McMaster are not the only teams to follow, with most regional powers in the tournament, including York rival University of Toronto, Cape Breton and UNB making the trip West, UQAM returning as Quebec champions, while traditional soccer powerhouse UBC is joined by what I would call the only underdog in the tournament in Victoria. The Vikes are led by Cam Hundel, who is part of group of players who could be playing professional soccer opposed to University Soccer especially if Canada had its own top league. Although without a Canadian 1st Division, I will say this is the strongest soccer tournament outside of the Voyagers Cup that includes only Canadian teams and, from personal experience, the quality is very good and worth checking out if you are in the Toronto area.

Here is a quick preview of the 2015 CIS Men's Championship Tournament participants.

CAPE BRETON

Cape Breton finished 1st during the 10 team AUS 2015 season with an eight wins, one loss, four draws record, although lost to UNB in the AUS Championship game. Cape Breton’s main player is Justin Maheu, who won the AUS MVP for the second season in a row and has scored 28 league goals over the last two seasons. Justin, who is from Ottawa, played in the Toronto FC Academy and also played for Canada at the CONCACAF U-17 Championships. He was offered scholarships to play in the States but chose to try a go in Europe and played two seasons in Germany with Fortuna Dusseldorf before returning to Canada and attending Cape Breton. Another Caper to watch is Joel Eckert-Ayensa, who won the AUS Rookie of the Year after scoring six goals in 13 games. Eckert-Ayensa comes from Germany, which is also a trend happening south of the border in NCAA Soccer

MCMASTER

McMaster return to the CIS Championship after losing to York in last year’s final. McMaster actually finished third in the OUA west this season with an 11 win and five loss record, although a playoff run saw them make the OUA final again losing to York in a competitive match 2-1. McMaster is coached by Dino Perri, who has a history in the CSL and is the former coach of the St. Catherines Wolves and because of this McMaster tends to recruit players with a history in the CSL, including top scorer and team leader Gersi bXhuti, who played for Milltown, London City and Serbian Eagles. Other players to watch are defender Nick Vecchi and holding midfielder Ryan Garnett who were named to the OUA West All-Star teams.

UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

No school has had a stronger soccer program over the years than UBC and this has even been more true with many former Whitecap Residency players joining the Thunderbirds. Like York, UBC has added some former pros to their team in former Ottawa Fury goalkeeper Chad Bush and former FC Edmonton forward Gagan Dosanjh, who also played with the Whitecaps U23 club in PDL. Other former Whitecap youth players include defender Chris Serban, midfielder Harry Lakhan and first year player Titouan Chopin who has 52 games in the USSDA under his belt before joining the Thunderbirds. UBC still looks to be York’s toughest opponent to repeat as CIS Champions even though they did not make the CIS Championship Tournament in 2014.

UNIVERSITY OF QUEBEC, MONTREAL

UQAM won the RSEQ season championship with a 10-1-1 record and beat local rivals Montreal in the RSEQ final on penalty kicks after playing to a 2-2 draw. UQAM finished fourth in the CIS National Championship last season and in 2015 James Louis-Jeune was named the RSEQ Best Player in his second season with UQAM. Louis-Jeune has played a number of seasons in the PLSQ with L'Assomption. Along with clubs leading scorer Simon Cote-Kougnima, who plays with Gatineau in the PLSQ, and Mohammed Saidi, who has played with Brossard and Mont-Royal in the Quebec top club division. When it comes to CIS Soccer the RSEQ is a bit of a outlier with only one bid but development of the game has been strong recently in Quebec and UQAM should not be a team taken lightly.

UNIVERSITY OF NEW BRUNSWICK

UNB finished second in the AUS with a eight wins, two losses and three draws and beat Cape Breton 2-1 in the AUS Championship game. UNB had three players make the All-AUS 1st team in Ontarians Marcus Lees and Steven Miller and Brazilian Diego Padilha, although in the tournament the two players to keep an eye on is their forward line of Robert Park and Oliver Jones, who combined for 16 goals in conference play. Both Park and Jones come from the United Kingdom. Park is from Glasgow, Scotland and has been with UNB three seasons, scoring 12 goals in 35 AUS league games while Jones is from London, England and has been with the UNB program for four seasons scoring 22 goals in 51 AUS league games. UNB has finished 5th and 3rd the last two CIS National Championships.

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

U of T advanced to the CIS Champions by beating Ryerson 3-0 in the third place game of the OUA tournament. This will be the first time that the Varsity Blues will be in the CIS Championship since 2011. U of T lost one of the top goalscorer in CIS in Killan Elkinson going into this year, so have had to rely on more of a defensive system and sharing the goal scoring with eight players scoring at least two goals. Leading scorer Nirun Sivananthan, who played youth soccer in Brampton, leads the team with six goals during the regular season. Nikolay Saveliev was named to the OUA East All Star team. The midfielder was born in Japan but played a number of seasons developing with the North Toronto Nitros. Meanwhile Youseff Helmy, who won the OUA East Rookie of the Year, played with Glen Shields and North Mississauga and has been an exciting winger during his first CIS Season and has set goals up with a very strong cross.

VICTORIA

The Vikes are the Cinderella team of the tournament, winning the second Canada West spot over strong schools such as Calgary, Alberta and Saskatchewan and even taking the mighty UBC to extra time in the Canada West Final, which was a playoff full of surprises. Victoria finished second in the much weaker Pacific Division to UBC with a six win, three loss, three draw record, although they did hold UBC to a draw in Vancouver back in September. The Vikes were led all season by Cam Hundel, who finished league play with 10 goals and seven assists. Now in his fifth season, he previously won Rookie of the Year and three first team Canada West awards. Fellow fifth year veteran Craig Gorman is another player to look out for as the Vikes hope to continue their Cinderella season.

YORK UNIVERSITY

York got an automatic bid for hosting the CIS Championship this season but also won the championship last year and beat McMaster in the OUA championship this season. Carmine Isacco brings another strong team in 2015, although a bit different than prior teams with less emphasis on former Toronto FC Academy players. The biggest new name is Michael Cox who was the top scorer in CIS and the name might be familiar as prior he played professionally with FC Edmonton and in Finland. The 6'2 forward can finish chances with the ball at his feet or connecting with a pass or cross. His forward partners of Jarek Whiteman and Joey Cicchillo are two players I spoke about in the past that make the Lions one of the top offensive teams in the country. I also like Midfielder Dena Iezady, who plays in L1O with Vaughn and has good size and technique and I feel has the potential to play the game at a professional level.

Aaron Neilsen is a co-founder of Prospect XI (Prospect Eleven), a scouting network and online magazine dedicated to tracking/highlighting young players that refer to as "prospects" as well as their development pathways both within North America and worldwide. Follow PXI via www.prospectxi.com  or on twitter @ProspectXI.