Trio Of Seniors Return To Health To Bolster No. 22 Eagle Women

Each season, freshmen and transfers come on to a collegiate sports roster to add to what already has been built in a program.
 
The same is true for the 2026 edition of the Ashland University women's soccer team. The No. 22-ranked Eagles, however, also will be bolstered by the return from injury of three key seniors – midfielders Haley Hightower and Ella Schneider and defender Adi Turnbaugh.
 
"We're very excited to have that group back," said Ashland head coach Cayleb Paulino. "All of them have started in the (NCAA Division II) Sweet 16 as freshmen, so having that experience…makes a big difference. The contributions of being all-conference-type kids has shown early in the preseason. The everyday environment enhances when those three are back and in the best version of themselves."
 
"The benefit out of it was we had an opportunity for some kids to grow in some roles right away."
 
All three seniors are excited about returning to a team which will start a new campaign at Ferguson Field on Aug. 27 at 6 p.m. vs. No. 19-ranked Grand Valley State.
 
"I'm super excited," said Hightower. "I think that we have a really strong group of freshmen that came in. Eager to get after it, so it will be good."
 
"I think we're all hungry. We're hungry to go further in the NCAA Tournament," Schneider said. "For the people who have been hurt and the people who maybe haven't done as much as they've wanted to do, we're hungry to go farther and do more."
 
Added Turnbaugh, "We don't want to underestimate anything, but just coming up short these past couple years has just fueled us for hopefully going even further this year."
 
Paulino and the Eagles are getting back three key players in their defensive scheme which has kept teams to an average of just 0.34 goals per game over the previous three seasons:

• Turnbaugh was a 2024 first-team All-Division 2 Conference Commissioners Association (D2CCA) all-region selection, and has been a first-team All-Great Midwest Athletic Conference choice twice.
• Schneider scored twice during the 2023 NCAA Division II postseason, and was an all-conference second-teamer in 2024.
• Hightower has played in 54 games over her first three seasons (32 starts), and has recorded two goals and an assist.

In 2025, the trio didn't play in their first game together until Oct. 30 at Findlay. None of them played in more than 12 of AU's 22 contests last fall.
 
Despite that, the Eagles won both the Great Midwest regular-season and conference championships, and reached the NCAA playoffs once again.
 
"We all want to be out there," Hightower said. "It was definitely a challenge, but I think it definitely helped me grow mentally. I just had to learn to kind of persevere and get through that tough time, and my team definitely helped me.
 
"Obviously, everybody wants to be out there playing and contributing to the team, but I think that makes us that much more hungry this year. I want to make up for it and just go out with a bang for my senior year."
 
Said Schneider, "You want the team to succeed and you want to see them to do their best, but when you're sitting there and there's no way you can contribute other than communicating or talking, you want to be out on the field.
 
"Especially for us, now that we're out there, we're going to give 100 percent and our all every single day. That's going to help us go far."
 
"It was definitely tough being on the side," added Turnbaugh, "but also seeing people step up and play well and win games, that's awesome to see. Just being supportive on the side is super important. Having a voice was a learning moment."
 
Now that all the offseason work to prepare for their last collegiate seasons is over, and preseason training has begun, all three Eagle seniors are ready to put an exclamation point on their AU playing careers.
 
"The summers are always hard, because we're not all together," Turnbaugh said, "so you have to push yourself. I worked really hard to work to come back from being injured, getting my fitness back up. And then just being back here, you just want to be the best version of yourself when you get back, so I think that's what kind of fueled me this summer."
 
"Regardless if you're injured or not injured, the offseason's when you're going to put in the most time, and you're going to see the results in the season," Schneider said. "A lot of people put in time, whether they were hurt or not, so I'm excited to see what happens."
 
Hightower concluded, "Personally, this spring was tough, not being able to play at all. We have our accountability groups, so that definitely helped me bounce off my teammates, our energy, and we talked about what we were doing in the offseason.
 
"We all pushed each other very hard in the offseason, and that's when the most fitness and everything is built."