Schedule | Roster | Video Interview With Josh Jones

The Malone University women's soccer team finished the 2015 season with an overall record of 7-12, and a record of 5-7 in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC). The team played well enough to make it into the GLIAC post-season tournament where they fell to NCAA DII #1 Grand Valley State in the quarterfinals. Head Coach, Josh Jones has shown improvement in each of his three years as the Pioneers' coach. Jones feels that doing what it takes to get a little bit better every day is the ultimate goal.

"We hope to just work hard every day, get 1% better, play as a team, keep our style of play intact and just do the little things right every day and in turn we will achieve good things again this year."

The team is entering its first year as a member of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC). This season's schedule will be filled with new opponents for the Pioneers. The only remaining 2015 opponents on this year's schedule are Clarion University and Davis & Elkins College. Both of those teams were great opponents for the Pioneers last season. Malone beat Davis & Elkins, who is a member of the G-MAC as well, 2-1 in double overtime early last season. Towards the end of the season, the Pioneers lost 3-2 to Clarion. Coach Jones feels that moving into the new conference was a great move for the women's soccer program and the entire school.

"The move to the G-MAC provides a more level playing field for our Pioneers and gives us a better chance to go further in the conference tournament and hopefully into the national tournament."

This year's team has a plethora of returning players from last year and they are looking forward to building off of last year's successes. Last year's two leading scorers, Brianna Smith and Christine Najjar, are both returning for their senior season. In 2015, Smith and Najjar scored 22 out of the team's 26 goals on the season. The team has eight returning starters altogether, which also includes defenders Kaela Kovanda, Paige Clary, and Danielle Giles, and midfielders Mikayla Neville and Annie Boyle.

The team has three other returning players who contributed in last year's success, totaling 11 returning players. Although there will be many familiar faces for the Pioneers, there will also be quite a few new ones. The team has brought in 14 new players in the offseason, including one transfer player and 13 incoming freshmen. Coach Jones expects these players to work hard to push the returning players, and be prepared to step in and be contributors when it is their time. When that time may come will vary from player to player. A few of these young players may come in and start right away, some of them may provide contributions off of the bench, and some of them may be preparing for future playing time. Coach Jones plans to have them all prepared to step in at any moment.

"We are looking for all of them to make an impact, and we have told them that over and over, so we need them to step it up. We never know when we might need a change, so you may think that you'll never see the field and then one day it is your turn to step in. The expectation is that these players are ready to step in and perform on a daily basis."

The team starts the season off with a two-game trip to Florida to play at the Palm Beach Atlantic Tournament, before returning home to begin conference play against Alderson Broaddus University on September 8^th at Pioneer Field. The Pioneers plan to be a fun team to watch this season. They want to be creative, exciting and aggressive. Look for the Pioneers Women's Soccer team to score lots of goals, attract lots of fans, and become 1% better every day.