Four Candidates to be the Next Virginia Women's Lacrosse Head Coach

Who will be the successor to Julie Myers as the next head coach of the UVA women's lacrosse program?

Matt Riley/Virginia Athletics

For the first time in nearly three decades, someone other than Julie Myers will walk the sideline at Klockner Stadium at the head coach of the Virginia women's lacrosse program. After 28 years, Myers announced announced her resignation as UVA women's lacrosse head coach last week. Now, Virginia director of athletics Carla Williams has an important coaching vacancy to address and must find a capable candidate to try to fill the shoes of Myers, who leaves a lasting and successful legacy with the Virginia women's lacrosse program and a massive hole in the UVA athletics department. 

Under the direction of Myers, the Cavaliers never once missed the NCAA Tournament, won 349 games, five ACC Championships, and the 2004 NCAA Championship. Myers became the first individual in women's lacrosse history to win a NCAA Division I national championship as both a player and a coach, winning in 1991 as a player, in 1993 as an assistant coach, and in 2004 as a head coach, all at Virginia. Between her time as a player, assistant, and head coach, Myers spent 37 years at the University of Virginia. 

So, who will be the successor to Julie Myers? Here are four candidates to be the next head coach of the Virginia women's lacrosse program: 

Brittany Dipper, Virginia assistant coach

For a program with as much sustained success as Virginia experienced under Julie Myers, promoting from within can be an appealing option in order to maintain the program's culture and consistency. With that said, the Cavaliers don't exactly have clear-cut succession plan, as neither of the top assistants on Julie Myers' staff have been at UVA for even a full year at this point. Brittany Dipper was named an assistant coach in July of 2022 and Ally Kennedy joined the staff in September of 2022. 

If Virginia was to promote from within, Dipper would be the likely candidate, as she came to UVA with a more complete coaching resume. A 2012 graduate from Maryland, Dipper was a two-time First-Team All-American goalie and led the Terrapins to four ACC titles, the 2010 National Championship, and was the 2011 IWLCA National Goalie of the Year. Dipper began her coaching career at Stetson, serving as an assistant coach and briefly as interim head coach before joining the coaching staff at Elon, helping a program that had just become a varsity sport. In 2017, Dipper served as the associate head coach and helped the Phoenix go 13-7 and earn their first NCAA Tournament appearance in just their fourth season at the Division I level. Before coming to UVA, Dipper spent the previous four seasons at Boston University, including the 2022 season as associate head coach. In 2019, the Terriers had their best season in nearly a decade, going 11-7 and 6-3 in the Patriot League. All told, Dipper has 11 seasons of coaching experience, including multiple seasons as an associate head coach, and most importantly, some direct familiarity with the UVA women's lacrosse program. 

Amy (Appelt) Slade, UMBC head coach

As perhaps the greatest Virginia women's lacrosse player of all time and one of the greatest college lacrosse players ever as well as a coach with 11 years of head coaching experience, Amy (Appelt) Slade is a no-brainer candidate for the UVA job. Slade is still Virginia's all-time record-holder in career goals (258), career points (373), and single-season goals (90). She ranks second all-time in career assists (115), second in single-season points (121), and third in single-season assists (38). Her 2004 season was one for the history books, as Slade scored 90 goals and 121 points to lead the Cavaliers to their third national championship and was named the ACC Player of the Year, IWLCA Player of the Year, Inside Lacrosse Offensive Player of the Year and was the recipient of the Tewaaraton Award. A four-time All-American and 2021 inductee into the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame, Slade is still the NCAA's all-time leader with 66 consecutive games with a goal. 

Slade began her coaching career as a volunteer assistant at Virginia and helped the Cavaliers reach the 2007 National Championship Game, where they fell to Northwestern. She joined the UMBC coaching staff in 2009 and she has been with the Retrievers for the last 14 years. Slade served as an assistant for three seasons before being named co-head coach along with Tony Giro for the next two years. She has been the UMBC head coach for the last 11 seasons and the sole head coach of the Retrievers since 2015. In her time as a head coach, Slade has an 80-83 overall record, highlighted by back-to-back double-digit win seasons in 2017 and 2018, the first time the program had accomplished that feat in nearly a decade. 

So, who better than Slade, who was a key part of Virginia's last national championship and who now has an abundance of experience leading a program as the head coach, to be the successor to Julie Myers as the next head coach of the UVA women's lacrosse program?

Hannah Nielsen, Michigan head coach

Hannah Nielsen has produced impressive results in just six seasons as a head coach, but her coaching resume is still overshadowed by her stellar playing career. In four years as a player at Northwestern (2006-2009), Nielsen led the Wildcats to four national championships and an 85-3 overall record, was twice named the recipient of the Tewaaraton Award, and still owns the all-time Northwestern records for career points (398) and assists (224) and as well as the NCAA all-time assists record. 

Nielsen began her coaching career as an assistant at Penn State in 2009, spent the next two seasons as an assistant at Towson, and then two more seasons as an assistant at Colorado. After returning to her alma mater to serve as an assistant in 2017, Nielsen accepted her first head coaching job at Michigan, which had just established women's lacrosse as a varsity sport in 2014. Under Nielsen's direction, the Wolverines reached their first NCAA Tournament in just her second season leading the program and went 16-4 overall in that historic 2019 campaign. Michigan has qualified for the NCAA Tournament in three of Nielsen's six seasons and has won a game in each of those three postseason appearances. Nielsen has a 54-39 overall record as the head coach of the Wolverines. 

Nielsen has accomplished some great things in her six seasons as a head coach at Michigan and it may be difficult to lure her away from Ann Arbor, but there's little question that she is ready for a possible step up in her career to take over one of the more storied programs in women's lacrosse. 

Anne Harrington, Richmond head coach

Anne Harrington just finished her first season as the full time head coach at Richmond. The Spiders enjoyed their greatest season in program history in 2023, turning in a 17-4 overall record that included a momentous double-overtime victory over Virginia, winning the Atlantic 10 Tournament for the third time, and beating Marquette for the program's first-ever NCAA Tournament victory. Richmond ranked No. 1 in the country in draw controls, No. 2 in scoring offense, No. 3 in points per game, and No. 3 in draw control percentage this season. 

A native of Alexandria, Virginia, Harrington played lacrosse at William & Mary and graduated with a degree in Kinesiology in 2007. Harrington began her coaching career in England, where she was the head of lacrosse for the English Lacrosse Association. She was an assistant coach at Dickinson College and then an assistant at UConn. Before joining the Richmond coaching staff in 2017, Harrington spent two years at the University of Virginia as the Annual Giving Assistant for the Virginia Athletics Foundation and also got her master's degree in Education from UVA in 2014. 

Harrington's time at Richmond has coincided with the most successful run in program history, as the Spiders are 95-24 overall with Harrington on staff and 44-7 against Atlantic 10 opponents. Harrington was the assistant coach from 2017-2021, served as interim head coach in 2022 - going 14-4 and 8-1 in the Atlantic 10 - and led the Spiders to their best season ever in her first year as full-time head coach in 2023. 

Although she has just two years of head coaching experience, Harrington ranks No. 6 in Division I Women's Lacrosse in terms of active winning percentage and has a connection to the University of Virginia, so she could be the right fit to inherit the UVA women's lacrosse program. 

CavaliersNow will cover any updates on Virginia's coaching search as they happen. 

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