When you are reading this, we will be TWO WEEKS AWAY from the start of the Marquette women’s soccer season!
We’ll do a lot more season previewing as we get closer to the start of action, but for now, we have to beat the league office to the punch. Last year, we got the preseason Big East awards just a couple of days before the Golden Eagles got going with their season. That means we have to get waaaaaay out in front of the official results of the polling of the league’s women’s soccer coaches and
make some picks for who is going to get honored as the season gets started. My guiding light on these picks is, as always, trying to predict how the coaches will vote. I have my own preferences as to how things should turn out, but at the end of the day, the goal is to try to get these right.
Okay, let’s jump right into it, as we’ve got three individual awards to discuss, as well as a preseason all-conference team and a predicted order of finish for all 11 teams in the Big East!
Preseason Offensive Player of the Year: Peyton Kohls, Xavier
These things don’t have to be complicated: Kohls is the leading returning point scorer in the Big East this season. She had six goals and eight assists last season for the Musketeers for a total of 20 points. Here’s the catch: Since the last time the Big East updated the stats for last season was on November 10th, before the NCAA tournament started, Kohls was tied for eighth in total points a year ago and tied for ninth in points per game. She’s still the best returning player. Part of that is because there were A LOT of seniors on the All-Big East teams last fall, and another part is because two players in front of Kohls transferred after the season was over. That includes her own teammate, Samantha Erbach, who was the top scorer in the Big East last year with 18 goals and 16 assists, but now she’s at Florida State.
I’m going by the points and points per game here, because I value the contribution of assists to offensive production. Sometimes the coaches don’t agree with me on that topic, and so I should note that the Big East’s top returning goal scorer from last season is Marquette’s Jocelyn Leigh, who finished the year with seven. That was tied for eighth in the league in total goals and alone in sixth for goals per game as of the last time the league ran the stat sheet. Marquette was third in the Big East in team goals for as of November 10th with only Georgetown and Xavier in front of them, so there’s an argument for Leigh to get the nod here.
Preseason Defensive Player of the Year: Kaya Hanson, Georgetown
It’s hard to quantify who is a good defender in soccer sometimes, so we’re going to hand this title over to the only returning defender on the All-Big East Second Team last season, as none of the First Team defenders are returning for 2026. Besides, there’s worse ways to go here than guessing that the coaches are going to vote for a Hoya.
Preseason Goalkeeper of the Year: Hannah Dickinson, Villanova
This was an extremely easy pick to make once I figured out that Georgetown’s Cara Martin, the 2025 Big East Goalkeeper of the Year, signed with Orlando in the NWSL in January. She played just eight matches as a freshman and three as a sophomore, so I could see a way that somehow she picked up a waiver to play one more campaign. Nope, she’s a pro now, and so Hannah Dickinson, the only returning keeper on any of the three all-Big East teams at the end of last year, is the best returning keeper in the conference. Dickinson was #2 to Martin in save percentage last season and #3 in goals-against average behind Martin and UConn’s Ava Yamas.
I suppose there’s an argument for Yamas in this spot, especially with the Huskies finishing ahead of Villanova in the standings last season. However, Dickinson is a senior and Yamas is a sophomore, and I’m guessing that the league’s coaches will tilt towards seniority for a preseason honor.
Preseason All-Big East Team
Hannah Dickinson, Villanova, GK
Kaya Hanson, Georgetown, D
Lizzie Heller, Georgetown, M
Anaya Johnson, Connecticut, M
Peyton Kohls, Xavier, F
Gabby Koluch, Villanova, M
Jocelyn Leigh, Marquette, F
Se-Hanna Mars, Connecticut, F
Brooklynn Miltenberger, Xavier, D
Thea Mouratidis, Providence, M
Meredith Palmer, Villanova, D
Okay, so part of this went pretty quickly. Kohls, Hanson, and Dickinson all went straight in thanks to their individual awards. Leigh gets a spot since I mentioned her on the way to naming Kohls the OPOY on top of being the best returning forward in the conference after her Second Team honors at the end of last year. Johnson is the only First Team honoree returning from last season, so she clearly has to be here. Heller, Mouratidis, and Koluch all earned Second Team honors as midfielders last year, so now we’re honoring all the top returning mids.
That gets us to eight, and we need a forward and two defenders since we already have a keeper and four midfielders. Mars picked up an Offensive Player of the Week award last season while the other Third Team forwards did not, so in she goes. Miltenberger is the most senior of the Third Team returning defenders. That brought me down to either Palmer or Providence’s Stephanie Schoeley for the last spot, as both had Defensive Player of the Week awards last season. I went with Palmer just because her DPOW was for a performance in a Big East game and Schoeley’s was for shutting down a non-conference opponent. I’m guessing the coaches will find the other one more useful than the other, y’know?
The one pick that I did not put in here is Villanova’s Avrie Nelson, who is the reigning Freshman of the Year. I don’t feel that bad about it, because while she had that trophy and a Third Team honor, it was only off of five goals. Yes, that does tie her in points with Mars. No, I don’t feel I have to explain this.
Predicted Order Of Finish
1 — Xavier
2 — Georgetown
3 — Villanova
4 — Connecticut
5 — Marquette
6 — Providence
7 — Creighton
8 — Butler
9 — St. John’s
10 — DePaul
11 — Seton Hall
I have zero confidence in any of this.
There are way too many seniors from last season that have emptied out the known quantities of this league, and the outbound transfers have compounded that. Take Kohls for example. Yes, all evidence says she deserves to be Offensive Player of the Year. She was also fifth on her own team and the four women in front of her are all gone… as are two of the next three behind her. And yet, I’m picking Xavier to win the league because I don’t think Georgetown can go undefeated again like they did in 2025 because they appear to be losing their top five scorers from last year. If the system/history of success does not prop either of those two teams up this fall, then everything’s going to get crazy wild crazy quick.
Villanova and UConn have too much upside returning, including technically UConn returning the best player out of anyone in the league. I’m taking Marquette at #5 because 1) Jocelyn Leigh, 2) they could score just fine last year, it was defense that was their problem, so maybe head coach Chris Allen has fixed that?, and 3) Optimism is fun. Providence was neck and neck with Marquette last year, so why not the Friars at #6?
Creighton drops way down from how last year ended because of the number of all-conference honorees that have departed. After that, I just went in order of last year’s finishes. Those four teams had four Big East wins combined a year ago, including an 0-9-1 finish for Seton Hall. I don’t see why I should expect massive changes, y’know?
Marquette has an exhibition game at Valley Fields against Illinois scheduled for 5pm Central time on Saturday, August 8th. They get the season started for real at 3pm Central on Wednesday, August 12th, when they visit St. Thomas up in Minnesota.
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