MARIETTA, Ohio – The Marietta College women's soccer team put together a strong performance, especially in the second half, to open 2026 with a 2-0 victory over Washington and Jefferson College. The Pioneers move to 1-0 and Presidents fall to 0-1 on the season.
"Great team effort, " said Assistant Coach
Cody Kibler, filling in for Head Coach
Zack Votra who was serving a suspension held over from last year. "To play that many players and control a game in that manner is pretty incredible. Credit to the team for buying into the game plan and bringing our vision to life!"
Although both teams started well, Washington & Jefferson created the first real chance five minutes in, when Maura Heberle forced Pioneer goalkeeper
Francesca Agliolo (San Gabriel, Calif./Mayfield Senior) into a diving save to her left. Despite being outshot 5-3 by Marietta, W&J held firm, and the match went into intermission deadlocked at 0-0.
The game stayed tight into the second half before Marietta finally broke the deadlock in the 53rd minute. Junior transfer
Jaylyn Thornton (Pataskala, Ohio/Watkins Memorial) put the Pioneers ahead with a goal off an assist from
Madelyn Call (Letart, W.Va./Point Pleasant). Just four minutes later, Agliolo launched a booming downfield pass to find Thornton, who converted the opportunity past W&J goalkeeper Molly Schoch to double the lead. Marietta's defense stood firm the rest of the way, keeping W&J off the scoreboard to secure the 2-0 shutout. Agliolo went the distance in goal, playing all 90 minutes and recording three saves.
The Pioneers will return to the field Saturday (Sept. 5) when they travel to play in the PSU-Behrend Herb Lauffer Memorial Tournament. They will play host Penn State Behrend at 3:30 p.m. and then former conference foe John Carroll University the following day, also at 3:30 p.m.
Fans can follow all of the Pioneer teams all year long at
pioneers.marietta.edu. You can also follow the Pioneers on Facebook at
facebook.com/MariettaCollege and @MariettaPioneer on X and Instagram.
