Former Billiken goalkeeper Mary Niehaus joined the Saint Louis University women's soccer staff as Director of Operations in July 2024.
Niehaus earned numerous accolades during a SLU career that spanned six years (2014-19). She was a three-time selection (2016, 2017, 2019) to the Atlantic 10 All-Conference first team and a three-time All-Region choice, making the first team in 2017, the second team in 2019 and the third team in 2016. Niehaus was named to the 2019 A-10 Championship All-Tournament team; she helped lead the Billikens to A-10 regular-season and tournament titles and an NCAA Tournament berth that season.
The St. Charles, Mo., native and Nerinx Hall High School graduate owns the school record for career goals against average (0.56) and ranks third in wins (45), shutouts (30) and goalkeeper minutes (5,493). Her 0.33 GAA in 2019 set a school single-season record and ranked sixth in the nation. Niehaus also claimed 2019 national rankings of fourth in save percentage (.896) and tied for ninth in shutouts (11), and she landed among the nation’s top 20 netminders in GAA (11th, 0.52), save percentage (18th, .861) and shutouts (19th, 10) in 2017.
Niehaus earned a Bachelor of Science degree in neuroscience and a Master of Arts degree in biology at SLU. She was selected to the 2016 and 2017 A-10 All-Academic teams and was a 2017 College Sports Information Directors of America (now College Sports Communicators) Academic All-District honoree.
Niehaus was Saint Louis University’s 2019-20 Most Inspirational Senior Student-Athlete. She won the women’s soccer team’s Mentality Award in 2017 and Integrity Award in 2018.
“I am incredibly grateful and excited to welcome former SLU women’s soccer great Mary Niehaus as our new Director of Operations,” head coach Katie Shields said upon Niehaus' hiring. “Mary is one of the all-time great servant leaders of our program, and she played an instrumental role in building the foundation of our current team’s championship culture. She is incredibly intelligent and hardworking and brings an analytical eye to the daily operations of our program that will help us continue to create a high-performance environment in which our women can succeed.”
