Head Coach Jessica Mueller
Record at School: 50-13-15 (.737)
Career Record: Same
Email: jjmueller@carleton.edu
Phone: 507-222-4484
Jessica Mueller has led the resurgence of the Knights' program, including back-to-back-to-back undefeated MIAC regular season titles in 2022, 2023, adn 2024. She re-joined Carleton prior to the 2020-21 academic year, a period that saw the team conduct practices but not participate in intercollegiate competition due to the pandemic. The Knights went 7-6-3 in 2021, then posted 13+ win seasons the next three years, including a return to the NCAA Championships in 2023, the program's first national tournament appearance since 2010. Carleton returned to the NCAA Championships in 2024 and advanced to the second round before falling at No. 2 Loras College in a shootout.
Mueller was voted by her peers as the MIAC Coach of the Year in both 2022 and 2023. After a 13-2-3 (.806) ledger in 2022, she guided the Knights to a 16-3-2 (.810) overall record in 2023—the second-highest win total in program history—and a berth in the NCAA Championships where Carleton fell 3-2 to eventually national champion California Lutheran University but was the only squad to score multiple goals against the Royals during the tournament. In 2024, Carleton went 14-2-7 and earned a second consecutive NCAA Championships berth.
Following the 2023 season, Piper Dean ’25 and Cate Patterson ’24 were named to the United Soccer Coaches All-America Teams with Dean earning another All-America nod in 2024. Five Knights were voted to the All-Region team in 2024, and under Mueller’s direction, Carleton has had 19 players earn All-MIAC honors since 2021.
This is Mueller's third stint with the women's soccer program at Carleton, having previously served as an assistant coach for the team from 2009-11 and again from 2013-16.
Previously, Mueller was the head coach of the varsity girls soccer program at Eden Prairie (Minn.) High School from 2016-20, and during those four seasons, she coached 10 players who earned scholarships to play at the NCAA D-I and D-II levels in addition to several D-III players. In 2018, Mueller was voted Minnesota State High School League's Section 2AA Coach of the Year. That same year she began coaching the U17 Girls squad at Tonka Fusion Elite, a nationally ranked Premier I club team that won the Minnesota State Cup championship in 2019 and qualified for US Club Nationals for the 2019 & 2020 seasons. Prior to that role, she was technical director and team coach for the Eden Prairie Soccer Club from 2011-18 and spent the 2012 season on the coaching staff at St. Paul (Minn.) Academy. She possesses both a USC/NSCAA Advanced National Diploma and an USSF National "C" Coaching License.
She previously served as the head coach for the Minnesota Thunder Academy O9’s, which play on the ECNL circuit. A fixture on the local club soccer scene, Mueller has also coached the U17 Girls squad at Tonka Fusion Elite, a nationally ranked Premier I club team that won the Minnesota State Cup championship in 2019 and qualified for US Club Nationals for the 2019 & 2020 seasons. Prior to that role, she was technical director and team coach for the Eden Prairie Soccer Club from 2011-18 and spent the 2012 season on the coaching staff at St. Paul (Minn.) Academy.
Mueller, a 2002 graduate of Kalamazoo College (Mich.), holds a bachelor's degree in English. As a student-athlete, she was a two-time team captain and earned MIAA All-Conference honors twice while helping the team to two MIAA conference titles and two NCAA tournament appearances.
An assistant professor of physical education, athletics and recreation, Mueller holds graduate degrees from Goddard College and Concordia College.
Assistant Coach: Mike Navarre
Mike Navarre joined the Carleton coaching staff in August 2024. He spent 24 years as head coach at Augsburg University, leading the Auggies to a 235-154-48 (.593) before retiring in Feb. 2023. His squads advanced to the NCAA Championships three times. He also served as coach of Augsburg's men's soccer team from 1999 to 2003. Navarre graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with degrees in psychology and sociology and a certificate (minor) in African studies. He later earned his masters’ degree from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (UNC), where he specialized in sport psychology. In 2011, he received his Ph.D. in kinesiology (specializing in sport psychology) from the University of Minnesota.
Assistant Coach: Ashley Becker
Ashley Becker was added to the Carleton coaching staff prior to the 2024 season. A coach for Fusion Soccer Club (Minn.) since 2020, she has also served as goalkeeping coach for the Maple Grove (Minn.) high school varsity boys’ soccer team, a squad that finished as the Minnesota state runner-up in 2023. A standout goalkeeper at Gustavus Adolphus College, Becker was a first team All-American in 2017 and a three-time first-team All-Region pick. She collected All-MIAC recognition four time, including being tabbed MIAC Rookie of the Year in 2015 and MIAC Player of the Year in 2017. She graduated from Gustavus in 2019 after majoring in exercise physiology and received the Female Athlete of the Decade Award from Gustavus in 2020.
