Featured photo of Malyn Martinson courtesy of UMHB Sports Information (Photographer: Ethan Torres)
BELTON — This past spring, Barry Elkins and the UMHB women’s soccer team stepped back onto the practice field, preparations for another run at the American Southwest Conference title beginning over five months from the date of the 2025 season opener.
Several players had already been penciled into roles vacated by yet another stellar senior class following The Cru’s eighth-straight appearance in the ASC title game. But Elkins still needed to find his captains for 2025. Kelsey White and Breland Mungia had closed their decorated college careers in the 2024 ASC Tournament final, the latest in a long line of high-character leaders who have become interwoven with UMHB’s standard of excellence over the last decade.
That baton was ready to be handed off, and Elkins looked over his team for the next players not only capable, but eager to accept the responsibility that comes with the title of “captain”. He needed someone who everyone would confidently look to for direction, and whose words were respected by the rest of those in the locker room. Someone willing to put immense effort into growing as a leader, just as previous captains had done.
That “someone” was Malyn Martinson. There wasn’t any doubt in Elkins’ mind about it.
“We ask like, ‘Who’s the no-brainer? Who’s every kid on my team going to respond to?,’” Elkins told True To The Cru prior to UMHB’s 2025 season opener. “It’s Malyn, because, one, she’s a great player, but a step further, she’s a great person and one that actively works on being a good leader.
“She learned from Shay [Taylor], who worked at being a great leader. Kelsey, who worked at being a great leader. Breland put time and effort into becoming that. So she doesn’t really know any difference, besides, ‘Oh, I’m supposed to really work at this.’ Being [that she plays in] the middle of the back line, which is very important to us, and that she works on being a leader, literally every single one of my kids will respect that and follow her.”
Martinson is in the midst of her senior year as an anchor on UMHB’s accomplished back line, a unit that has contributed greatly to The Cru’s 30-6-6 record over the last three years. She was a 2023 and 2024 United Soccer Coaches All-Region honoree. The 2025 ASC Preseason Defensive Player of the Year. As Elkins said, she was a “no-brainer” when captains were being selected in the spring.
But her journey to assuming the role of captain began with Taylor three years ago. It was 2022, and Martinson was a true freshman on a roster filled with experience, including nine seniors, several of whom were considered amongst the best at their respective positions in Region 10. She didn’t play much that fall, appearing in three matches for the first team in program history to win an ASC Tournament title. And that context is exactly what made Taylor’s leadership stand out so much to Martinson directly.
“I’ve always looked up to Shay because my freshman year, we came in and she made us feel so valued,” Martinson remembered of Taylor, a midfielder who played at UMHB from 2018-2021. “I knew then that if I was ever a captain, I wanted to make people feel valued. I’ll never forget that.”
Along with holding onto the example that Taylor set during her own senior year, Martinson has also found direction from White’s leadership style last fall. She sees traits of both former teammates in the approach she takes to her role on the current team, having seemed to soak up the advantages of maturing as a player in a program that never ceases to put respected seniors on the field.
“Kelsey was such a strong voice last year,” Martinson added. “She said exactly what was expected and demanded that we were going to be the best. I looked up to both of them, and they’re people I want to curate my captainship around. I’m super grateful to have had them.”
Martinson has held firm to the promise she made to herself as a freshman about making those around her in the program feel valued. She and fellow captain Ella Ruff are leading two particular initiatives this season with that exact mentality in mind, with players regularly writing meaningful notes to their teammates across the roster—something not dictated by stats or playing time—while also setting aside time for teammates to form strong bonds away from practice and gamedays.
“We wanted to encourage team bonding,” Martinson said of the pregame notes. “Because sometimes it’s hard when your teammates don’t travel or aren’t playing. We want to remind everyone that they’re valued. We also have something where you are randomly assigned one person and you go get coffee, or go on a walk, or go eat with them, just to encourage that team togetherness that we’re working towards.”
When Martinson talks about her four years spent in Belton, she does so while inevitably bringing up a teammate who played alongside her. Asked about winning the Co-Defensive Player of the Year award from the ASC last fall, she noted her gratitude while adding, ‘Like I tell my friends, I’m not the biggest fan of personal awards. Because my back line did that.’ Asked about her leadership, she brought up Taylor and White. And the same is true for her decision to come to UMHB in the first place, joining the Bridgeland High-to-UMHB pipeline that has brought so much talent to Crusader women’s soccer in recent years. It’s not so much deflecting credit as it is recognizing her path to this point hasn’t unfolded without several impactful people entering that path along the way.
In the case of her commitment to UMHB, it was Kaileigh Duncan, a Crusader forward from 2020-2023, that had a tremendous impact. For background, for each of the last six seasons, at least one Bridgeland High School alum has been part of the program, starting with Duncan in 2020. Since that year, Natalie Mason, Karryn Duncan, Elise Bienvenu, and Martinson, have all joined the fold at various points, their careers overlapping in Belton.
When Martinson was a high school junior on Bridgeland’s 17-3-3 team in 2020-21, Duncan played her first season at UMHB, appearing in five matches with one goal for The Cru. Having that connection allowed Martinson to get a good idea of what a college career in Belton might look like. Along with that, Mason, a senior on that 2020-21 Bridgeland team, had recently committed to join The Cru in 2021.
“I don’t know if it was because I knew them, or because they were such amazing people,” Martinson noted, reflecting back. “But I knew that this was the place I wanted to be.
“I love the Bridgeland pipeline to UMHB. It’s fantastic. I loved being able to play with Kaileigh and Natalie; you never think that’s going to happen after high school. Those are some of the nicest, most genuine friendships I’ve had, and I’m so grateful that they came here and I followed them, pretty much. I don’t think I would’ve known about UMHB without them in front of me.”
She is four games into her senior year, going through the same experience Duncan and Mason separately had each of the last two years as they went through their own final seasons in Belton. The back line has been remarkably good with Martinson as part of it, having surrendered no more than a single goal in 21 of The Cru’s last 23 matches. In 2025, they’ve held Puget Sound, Christopher Newport, and Virginia Wesleyan to a single goal, while also shutting out Concordia in the Aug. 30 season opener.
Last Friday, UMHB became just the third unranked team in the last two years to hold No. 3 CNU to one goal and the first to do so in 2025. Exactly a week later, Martinson and The Cru get an equally-tough matchup against another stalwart offensive attack, hosting seventh-ranked Misericordia at 7 p.m. in Belton.
The Cougars come to Texas averaging 3.0 goals per game, and are fresh off back-to-back 4-0 shutout wins. But there is something different about UMHB’s defensive capability, something that gives The Cru a real chance to knock off a Top 10 opponent at home.
“The cohesiveness of Allie [Angell], McKenna [Prichard], and I all being really similar helps us,” Martinson said. “We know what we’re going to get from each other. If I’m in a tight situation, I can give the ball to one of them and they’ll get it out. I trust that they’re going to cover me. We have a deep foundation of trust and friendship.”
