Record at School: 50-13-15 (.737)
Jessica Mueller has led the resurgence of the Knights' program, including back-to-back NCAA Championships appearances in 2023 and 2024. Carleton captured undefeated MIAC regular season titles in 2022, 2023 and 2024.
Mueller 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. In 2024, the Knights advanced to the second round of the tourney before falling to 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, the Knights went 14-2-7 (.761).
Under Mueller’s direction, Carleton has had 19 players take home All-MIAC honors, 8 players collect All-Region recognition, and 3 players earn All-America status.
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.
