The 2017 season was Noel Cox-Brown's seventh season as the head coach of Keystone College's women's soccer team. Since taking over the reigns of the Giants' program just before the start of the 2011 season, Cox-Brown, who also serves as Keystone's Compliance Coordinator, has built a team that has become competitive in conference play as the squad earned its first-ever Colonial States Athletic Conference playoff berth in 2015.
In 2017, Cox-Brown led Keystone to a 5-10-1 overall record including a 4-7 mark in CSAC games. The Giants posted wins over Rosemont College, Clarks Summit University, Notre Dame of Maryland University, and Cedar Crest College in conference play. Following the season, sophomore midfielder Hannah Richner earned All-Conference honors for the second straight year by being selected to the Honorable Mention All-CSAC squad.
In 2016, Cox-Brown guided the Giants to a 7-8-1 overall record including a 4-6-1 mark in conference play as Keystone narrowly missed out on its second-straight trip to the CSAC playoffs, finishing one spot out of the postseason field. The Giants posted a 2-1 victory over eventual CSAC champion Marywood University on October 12 to deal the Pacers their only setback to a conference opponent on the year. Following the season, senior defender Brittany Sugalski and Richner were both named Second Team All-CSAC. Additionally, 16 Giants earned CSAC All-Academic Team honors for excellence in the classroom and the team captured its fourth United Soccer Coaches Team Academic Award.
After going winless in their first five non-conference games of the 2015 season, Cox-Brown led Keystone to five wins in their first six conference games and the Giants went on to clinch their first-ever CSAC playoff berth with a 7-4 record in conference play. Keystone entered the postseason tournament as the #5 seed and traveled to #4 Marywood University for a first round game, which the Pacers narrowly won 2-1 after taking the regular season meeting 7-0 just over a week earlier. Keystone finished the year with a 7-9-1 overall record and, after the season, Sugalski became the first player in program history to earn NSCAA All-Region honors by being selected Third Team All-Region. Sugalski and sophomore midfielder Jenna Moranski also earned Second Team All-CSAC accolades while freshman forward Nisa Cortes was named to the Honorable Mention All-CSAC squad. Cox-Brown's squad also earned the program's third-ever NSCAA Team Academic Awards and also the program's third NSCAA College Team Ethics and Sportsmanship Award as the Giants were lauded with the Gold Award.
Cox-Brown's team posted a 5-9-3 overall record during the 2014 season and finished one spot out of the CSAC playoffs with a 3-5-3 mark in conference play which placed the Giants seventh in the league standings. The Giants, with just one senior on their roster, posted an impressive, 2-1 win over playoff qualifier Rosemont College while three of the team's losses in league play were by two or fewer goals. Following the season, Suglaski was named Second Team All-Conference. The team also earned its second NSCAA Team Academic Award which honors teams with a 3.0 grade point average or higher.
In 2013, Cox-Brown led Keystone to their best-ever regular season record since beginning competition at the NCAA Division III level as the Giants finished with a 10-5-1 overall record while going 5-5-1 in the CSAC. The Giants narrowly missed out on their first-ever CSAC playoff bid after suffering an overtime loss on the last day of the regular season to perennial conference contender Marywood University. Keystone boasted the conference's leading scorer in senior Samantha Littleford, who was named First Team All-Conference after the season while Sugalski earned Honorable Mention All-CSAC accolades as a freshman. The team also picked up NSCAA College Team Ethics and Sportsmanship Silver Award accolades as well for achieving five or fewer yellow cards during the season and no red cards. Littleford also earned Capital One Academic All-America Second Team honors after being selected to the Capital One Academic All-District IV by CoSIDA and was also an NSCAA College Division Women's Scholar All-East RegionThis article is available at http://www.nscaa.com/a2291 Honorable Mention honoree as well.
At the helm of a young team in 2012 that had just one senior, Cox-Brown guided a highly competitive team that suffered five one-goal losses and seven defeats by two or few goals. Among Keystone's wins was a 3-0 victory over CSAC playoff qualifier Rosemont College. Additionally, eight of her players were named to the CSAC Fall All-Academic Team and the team earned its first-ever NSCAA Team Academic Award.
Cox-Brown led the Giants to a six-win season in 2011, marking their highest win total since 2004. Her squad also saw the inclusion on Rebecca Dinelli on the CSAC All-Conference team as an Honorable Mention goalkeeper.
Prior to joining the Keystone staff, Cox-Brown spent the past five seasons as the top assistant for the women’s program at Division I Siena College.
During her time at Siena, the program showed tremendous growth and success as the Saints made two MAAC final appearances, their first ever MAAC Championship and their first ever NCAA tournament appearance. Additionally, the program has experienced its highest win totals with 13 wins in 2008, 12 wins in 2009 and 17 wins in 2010. Most recently, the team has received National and Regional recognition being ranked 25th in the country by Soccer America and 7th in the Northeast Region by NSCAA.
Among her duties with the Saints, Cox-Brown was responsible for development of the athletes associated with Division I NCAA soccer program, including monitoring of academic progress, providing one-on-one instruction, and fostering parent/student/coach relationships.
She was also responsible for recruiting prospective student athletes, scouting opponents, development and implementation of tactical and technical training sessions. Cox-Brown also played an integral part of the development of her student-athletes as over 40 players were named to the MAAC All-Academic Team during her five years with the program. In addition, four student-athletes earned the honor of being named East Regional Scholar Athletes and the team maintained a collective GPA over 3.2.
Prior to her time on the bench, she was also a stand out goalkeeper for the Saints. Cox-Brown recorded 294 saves during her time in net, while posting a goals against average of under 1.0 in three of four seasons. Following her senior campaign she was named MAAV co-Defensive Player of the Year in 2004. During that season she helped the Saints to a program best 7-1-1 league mark. For her career she posted 16 shutouts and an .813 career save percentage. In 2011, Cox-Brown became the first-ever women's soccer player to ever be inducted into Siena College's Athletic Hall of Fame.
Coaching Record at Keystone
2011 7-9-1 (3-8 CSAC)
2012 3-12-2 (1-8-2 CSAC)
2013 10-5-1 (5-5-1 CSAC)
2014 5-9-3 (3-5-3 CSAC)
2015 7-9-1 (7-4 CSAC)*
2016 7-8-1 (4-6-1 CSAC)
2017 5-10-1 (4-7 CSAC)
6 seasons 44-62-10 (.422) overall / 27-43-7 (.396) CSAC
*CSAC Playoffs
