Olivia Soares is in her third season as an assistant coach to the Bulldogs in 2026-27.
A USA Hockey National Development Camp coach, Soares has helped UMD to two NCAA Tournaments and helped the Bulldogs produce nine draft picks over her tenure. With Soares as an assistant, UMD has also produced four first time Olympians (Nina Jobst-Smith, Thea Johannson, Tindra Holm and Ida Karlsson) and a two-time All-American in Eve Gascon.
Soares came to Duluth from Union College, where she spent two seasons on the bench as an assistant coach. She helped Union College post the most overall and conference wins in a two-year stretch in the program's Division I history and steer the program to a pair of victories over nationally ranked teams. In 2022-23, Soares had a hand in helping Union to the most wins in a single season at the Division I level (11), and the team had one of its best stretches in the month of November, winning three games in overtime as part of a four-game winning streak and five-game unbeaten streak, both the longest-ever in the program's Division I history.
Prior to Union, Soares served as an assistant coach at Colby College during the 2021-22 season, where she helped to lead the Mules to the best season in program history. Colby set a program record for wins with a 16-6-1 record and earned their first-ever bid to the NCAA Tournament, finishing the season eighth in the USCHO.com national rankings.
As a collegiate hockey player, Soares had a successful four-year career at Ohio State University from 2016-20, playing in 142 games for the Buckeyes. Soares was part of OSU's first-ever NCAA Tournament and Frozen Four Team in 2018, and served as both assistant captain as a junior before becoming a captain as a senior. Soares also led the team to the program's first Western Collegiate Hockey Association Tournament championship in 2020 before the NCAA Tournament was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A WCHA Scholar-Athlete honoree in 2018 and a three-time WCHA All-Academic Team selection, as well as a two-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree, Soares graduated from Ohio State in 2020 with a degree in education and earned her master's degree in sports management from OSU in 2021.
Soares, notably, became the first Black coach in the WCHA and is just one of two Black coaches in all of Division I women's hockey.
