ALBANY, New York – After serving two seasons at the helm of Marist women's soccer, Leigh Howard has accepted a position as head coach of the UAlbany women's soccer program, the teams announced on Tuesday.
"I would like to thank Leigh for the great work she did at Marist," said Director of Athletics
Tim Murray. "She is an extremely talented young coach with a bright future. We wish her all the best moving forward."
Under Howard's guidance, Marist gained five All-MAAC postseason selections. In the fall, captains Bianca Furci and Nicole Sasso were named to the All-MAAC Second Team. Sasso earned the same distinction in 2018, while Kristen Prevosto and Anna Davies were picked for the All-MAAC Rookie Team.
Academically, 32 Red Foxes were named to the MAAC All-Academic Team in the previous two seasons. Jillian Colucci received CoSIDA Academic All-District recognition in 2018 and 2019 as well.
I feel very fortunate to have been given the opportunity to serve as the head women's soccer coach here at Marist for the past 2 years," said Howard. "As a first-time head coach, I could not have asked for a better group of student athletes to work with. While I am excited for this next step in my career, I am proud of all we were able to accomplish as a program on the field, in the classroom, and as members of the Marist college community. I wish this group lots of luck and am looking forward to all that they will achieve in coming years."
Joining the Red Foxes ahead of the 2018 season, Howard was named MAAC Coach of the Year in her first year after guiding Marist to a 7-2-1 record in MAAC play. The Red Foxes reached the 2018 MAAC Semifinals that season after finishing the regular season in second place.
In 2019, the Red Foxes recorded a 5-4-1 mark against conference foes. Marist earned the fourth seed in the MAAC Tournament, and hosted a playoff match at Tenney Stadium for the second-straight season.
UAlbany went 9-6-3 in 2019. The Great Danes reached the America East Semifinals with a 6-1-1 conference record under Nick Bochette, who departed the program in January to accept the head coaching position at Temple.
Marist will begin a national search to fill its women's soccer head coaching vacancy.