Grace Barnard enters her third season as the Assumption women's soccer. She is the first woman head coach in program history.
In her second year as head coach, Barnard guided her team to an 11-7-2 record, 8-4-2 Northeast-10 record and to an NE-10 Championship appearance. She had one player break the all-time goals record under her in 2019 and had four players earn All-New England honors, three earn Northeast-10 All-Conference Honors, including one First-Team honoree, one second-team All-Region honoree and one NCAA Division II All-East Region First-Team honoree.Her team posted seven shutouts in 2019.
In her first season with the Hounds, Barnard guided her team to a 10-6-2 overall record, with a 7-6-1 mark in NE10 Conference play during her first year in charge. The Hounds earned a berth into the NE10 Tournament in Barnards first year roaming the sidelines, where they eventually fell to Southern New Hampshire in a shootout in the semifinal round. Five Hounds earned All-NE-10 honors under her watch, including the Conference Player of the Year Kallie Villemaire. Barnard helped Villemaire reach unprecedented heights, as she was named East Region Player of the Year, All-American and broke the Assumption single season goals record with 20. Three more Hounds earned New England Women's Intercollegiate Soccer Association (NEWISA) All-New England honors under Barnard.
Barnard comes to Assumption from Dartmouth College, where she spent the past three seasons as an assistant on the women’s soccer staff. During her three years, the team never finished under .500 while 12 players earned all-conference honors and the team had at least one NSCAA All-Region selection each season. Barnard holds an NSCAA Goalkeeping Level 1 Diploma and a Soccer Management and Development Diploma, along with a United States Soccer Federation “D” License.
Barnard played collegiately at Division I William and Mary from 2007-10, serving as the program’s starting keeper in her final two seasons. Her team reached the CAA Conference Tournament on three occasions and made two appearance in the NCAA Tournament, advancing to the second round twice. The Syracuse native coached at NE10 foe Le Moyne for three seasons following her graduation, from 2011-2014, before becoming an assistant at Dartmouth.
About Grace Barnard's hire:
"I'm excited to welcome Grace as our new women's soccer head coach. She has a great deal of Division I experience but also knows Division II and the NE10 well from her time at Le Moyne. She understands the Division II philosophy and the importance of developing the whole student-athlete. I look forward to working with her as we continue to strive for excellence in all that we do here at Assumption."- Nick Smith, Assumption Director of Athletics
"Grace will be an excellent addition to the Assumption College Women’s Soccer program, athletic department, and campus community. She is first and foremost a person of class and character and I would feel comfortable sending my daughters to play for any team she would coach. She is a hard worker, can teach the game at a high level, and relate to the players both on and off the field. She has been tremendous at Dartmouth and will bring the same passion and energy to the Greyhounds." - Ron Rainey, Dartmouth College women’s soccer head coach.
