The Hope College women’s soccer team will look to contend for the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association title this fall.
The Flying Dutch finished third in the 2021 MIAA Preseason Coaches Poll with 49 points.
The preseason poll for MIAA women's soccer awards eight points for a first-place vote, seven points for a second-place vote, etc. Coaches were not allowed to vote for their own programs.
Calvin University topped the poll with 61 points and seven first-place votes. Kalamazoo College was runner-up with 51 points and received one first-place vote. After Hope, Adrian College took fourth with 44 points and claimed one first-place vote. Albion College finished fifth with 42 points and followed by Alma College (28 points), Trine University (24), Olivet College (15), and Saint Mary’s College (10).
The 33rd Hope women’s soccer season begins on Friday-Saturday, Sept. 3-4 with home games against DePauw University (Indiana) and Wittenberg University (Ohio). Both games kick off at 3:30 p.m. at Van Andel Soccer Stadium.
MIAA play for the Flying Dutch, led by head coach Leigh Sears, starts on Saturday, Oct. 2 at Saint Mary’s College.
Hope is coming off a 4-2-1 spring season that included a 3-1-1 mark in MIAA matches.
Four All-MIAA honorees are on this fall’s roster, including first team defender Jenna Mustapha, a sophomore from Ada, Michigan (Forest Hills Northern HS).
The Flying Dutch’s three All-MIAA Second Team honorees returning are forward Sarah Mikesell, a senior nursing major from Norton Shores, Michigan (Mona Shores), defender Sami Blair, a junior exercise science major from Byron Center, Michigan (Forest Hills Northern), and forward Natalie Hammer, a sophomore from Rockford, Michigan (Rockford),