MONTREAL – For the second year in a row, Gettysburg College women's lacrosse head coach
Carol Cantele '83 has been named as the 2011 FieldTurf NCAA Division III Women's Lacrosse Coach of the Year, it was recently announced.
Cantele, who led the Bullets to the NCAA Division III national championship last spring, was selected as one of six coach of the year winners as part of FieldTurf's sixth annual lacrosse awards. In addition, the Northwestern University women's lacrosse team was named as FieldTurf's Team of the Year.
Other coach of the year winners were Dom Starsia of the University of Virginia (Men's Division I), Cathy Reese of the University of Maryland (Women's Division I), Chris Ryan of Mercyhurst College (Men's Division II), Rob Grella of Adelphi University (Women's Division II), and Paul Cantabene of Stevenson University (Men's Division III).
This past June, Cantele was also named the Division III Coach of the Year by both the Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Association (IWLCA) and
Inside Lacrosse.
Gettysburg's NCAA title was the first for any sport in school history. With a team consisting primarily of freshmen and sophomores, she led the Bullets to 19 wins and a runner-up finish in the Centennial Conference. Entering the national playoffs seeded seventh, Gettysburg blasted through Adrian College (25-10) and No. 16 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (18-11) to reach the regional championship game. The Bullets knocked off defending national champion Salisbury University 14-13 to reach the semifinals of the fifth time in six seasons.
Gettysburg continued its march by beating fourth-ranked SUNY Cortland 14-11 in the semifinals. In the title game, the Bullets recorded the largest margin of victory in 17 years with a 16-5 win over No. 11 Bowdoin College.
Entering her 20th season at Gettysburg in 2012, Cantele ranks as the program's all-time wins leader with a record of 267-88. She owns a career record of 291-111 over 23 seasons and is on pace to become just the sixth women's head coach (all divisions) to reach 300 victories.
Gettysburg opens its 2012 season on Feb. 23 when it travels to the University of Mary Washington for a non-conference affair at 4 p.m.
