By Robert McKinney, Assistant Athletics Director, Communications

SALEM, Ore. -- Willamette University women's soccer forward Lacey Jones (Sr., Portland, OR/David Douglas HS) has been chosen as the Jean Williams Award winner for 2020-21. The Jean Williams Award is presented annually to the senior women's student-athlete who most excelled in all areas of their career at Willamette by exemplifying and demonstrating outstanding leadership, scholarship, and athleticism.

Jones played in 57 games with 28 starts over the past four seasons. She scored 13 goals and earned four assists for 30 career points. This spring, she started all eight games and provided the Bearcats with three goals and two assists during a season shortened due to COVID-19.

She competed in 18 games as a first-year player in 2017 and scored three goals. In the fall of 2018, she saw action in all 20 games and contributed five goals and two assists. In 2019, she played in 11 games and scored two goals, but missed part of the season due to an injury. During her career, Jones took 86 total shots, including 43 shots on goal.

Jones created many scoring chances and was skilled at providing timely goals for the Bearcats. She scored six game-winning goals, including two in 2017, two more in 2018, and one in both 2019 and 2020-21. She was a team captain for spring practices in her first year at Willamette and remained a captain during her junior and senior seasons.

As a student at Willamette, Jones majored in Psychology with a minor in Russian. He was a research assistant for psychology Professor Melissa Witkow's research project in 2018. Jones received the Presidential Scholarship and earned College Honors in the fall of 2020. She also received the Slavic National Honor Society award.

She served on the WU Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. She was the SAAC secretary as a junior and was the service and philanthropy coordinator as a senior.

Jones was a member of the Alpha Chi Omega sorority, where she held several positions as a vice president during her years at Willamette. She was a board member of the sorority as a sophomore, junior, and seniors. In addition, she worked as an intramural coordinator on campus. She has also worked as a coach with Soccer Shots Portland in 2019 and as an instructor at YMCA volleyball camps in 2019 and 2020. At Soccer Shots Portland, she worked with girls ages 2-6, while at the YMCA volleyball campus, she helped coach girls ages 7-12.

Recent winners of the Jean Williams Award include cross country and track and field runner Olivia Mancl in 2017, soccer player Emmy Manset along with cross country and track and field runner Hannah Swanson in 2018, swimmer Kiley Lin in 2019, and swimmer Niki Kates in 2020.