Jessica Nei finished her first season with Northwestern State, earning a promotion to associate head coach in October 2023.

Working with the goalkeepers, Nei has mentored Libe Banuelos into one of the top goalkeepers in the Southland Conference.

Under Nei’s tutelage, Banuelos finished second in the conference with 90 saves, as the NSU defense posted five shutouts overall.

Banuelos helped lead NSU to another appearance in the Southland Conference Tournament semifinals, allowing just two goals in 220 minutes during the tournament.

Prior to NSU, Nei was an associate head coach at UND. She contributed to a team that more than doubled its win total in both the overall and conference seasons in her first full season.

Nei aided in guiding the Fighting Hawks to their second conference postseason appearance in the Division I era in 2022.

She mentored a starting forward to an All-Summit League Second Team selection and another to the Summit All-Newcomer Team.

Before her time at UND, she was at Wyoming for a season, where she primarily coached the midfielders and goalkeepers.

Nei came to Wyoming after a five-year stint at Toledo, where she was the recruiting coordinator and responsible for the defenders and goalkeepers.

She helped lead the Rockets to a MAC conference tournament championship and trip to the NCAA Tournament in 2017. In that season, she mentored redshirt freshman goalkeeper Madison Perrin to MAC All-Freshman honors, who helped lead the championship run.

While with the Rockets, she coached a player who played in the Olympics & Women's World Cup.

She was hired at Toledo following a successful stint at Arkansas State from 2011-14.

While with the RedWolves, she mentored starting goalkeepers to its lowest goals against average in school history (1.19), fewest goals allowed (11) and most wins (8).

As an assistant at ASU, she helped guide the school to its first winning seasons in school history in her second and third years with the program.

In 2012, Nei earned the Assistant Coach Spirit Award for recognizing outstanding service,

commitment to excellence, going above and beyond expectations in advancement of the Arkansas State athletic department.

She began her coaching career as a graduate assistant at St. Cloud State (2008-10), where she was a part of a program that posted 28 victories, recording its first winning conference season in school history and first winning record in 13 seasons.

Nei also has coaching experience at seven non-collegiate stops.

As a player, Nei was a goalkeeper for North Dakota State (2003-07) and helped the Bison post 46 victories.