Program

Emcee: Jen Cooper (Rice ’90)

Friday, January 30, 2026

Location: Kraft Hall

12:00p Registration

1:00p Afternoon Session 1

1:00p Summit Welcome

1:10p Carlos Vela (Sporting Director, LD Alajuelense)
Industry Keynote

1:50p Hayden Van Brewer and Matt Cohen (SkillCorner)

2:15p Interactive Round Table Discussions #1

3:00p Afternoon Break

3:30p Afternoon Session 2

3:30p US Soccer Panel, featuring
  Vicky Jepson, Kaleb Parker, Natasha Patel, & Sam Gregory (Moderator)

4:15p Oliver Miller-Farrell (Assistant General Manager, Nashville SC)

4:40p Andrew Bates (Teamworks)

5:05p Interactive Round Table Discussions #2, presented by Teamworks

5:50p Friday Content Concludes

6:00p Networking Reception: Women in Soccer Analytics

All Summit participants are welcome. RSVP is required by January 24.

Saturday, January 31, 2026

Location: Duncan Hall

8:00a Breakfast and Registration

Enjoy breakfast tacos from Black Walnut Cafe and coffee/tea from Common Bond

9:00a Morning Sesssion 1

9:00a Saturday Welcome

9:10a Tim Swartz (Professor of Statistics & Actuarial Science, Simon Fraser University)
Academic Keynote

9:50p Interactive Round Table Discussions #3

10:35a Morning Break

Enjoy and coffee and tea from Common Bond

11:05a Morning Session 2

11:05a Debashis Mondal (Associate Professor of Statistics & Data Science, Washington University)

11:30a Maddalena Torricelli and Brennan Klein (Northeastern University)
  “The Team Support Network: Quantifying Off-Ball Impact in Women’s Elite Soccer through Tracking Data”

11:40a Presentation Pending Confirmation

12:05p Meredith Shea, Miles Sondergaard Jensen, Gaku Aihara (Vassar College)
  “Off-Ball Run Value: Quantifying the Quality of Off-Ball Runs”

12:15p Kendall Thomas (Doctoral Candidate, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

12:40p Lunch

Enjoy a selection of lunch options from Local Foods

1:40p Afternoon Session 1

1:40p Devin Pleuler (Sr Director of Research & Development, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment)

2:05p Lou Zhou (Rice University)
  “GPS: A Metric for Evaluating Goalkeeper Positioning”

2:15p Maddalena Torricelli (Northeastern University)
  “Harder, Shorter, Sharper, Forward: A Comparison of Women’s and Men’s Elite Football Gameplay”

2:35p David Almona (Centre College), Natalie Rayce (Carnegie Mellon University)
  “Forced Turnover: Evaluating Pressing Effectiveness in Soccer”

2:45p Adebisi Akinyemi, Dillon Stewart, Lennie Waite (HITE EQ)
  “Which Athletes are ‘Mentality Monsters’?: Clustering Athletes by their Psychological Attributes”

3:05p Afternoon Break

Enjoy and coffee and tea from Common Bond

3:35p Afternoon Session 2

3:35p Susana Ferreras (Data Analytics Lead, Arsenal FC)

4:00p John Daniels, Isaac Araoz, Tzu-Ying Chen (Auburn University)
  “Optimal Defensive Movement Against Counterattacks”

4:10p Daniel Castro, Colin Scifert, Jan-Anders Mansson (Purdue University)
  “Adversity Flags in Soccer Based on Individual Spatial Ownership and Pressure Received”

4:30p Adam Endress (Oregon State University)
  “Valuing the Effect of Off-Ball Runs in Increasing Dribble Success”

4:40p Jonathan Pipping, Tianshu Feng, Paul Sabin (University of Pennsylvania)
  “Beyond Expected Goals: A Probabilistic Framework for Shot Occurrences in Soccer”

5:00p Expected Own Goals Live Podcast

5:40p Summit Concludes

Disclaimer: Schedule is subject to change