NEW PALTZ, N.Y. – Liz (Wells) Student, the current assistant women's lacrosse coach at the University of Redlands in Redlands, Calif., has been named the fifth head coach in the history of the State University of New York at New Paltz women's lacrosse program, as announced Wednesday by New Paltz director of athletics Stuart Robinson. Student will begin her duties on Jan. 9, 2012.
"We are extremely excited to have Liz join our staff and take over our women's lacrosse program," Robinson said. "Her experiences as a student-athlete at Nazareth and as an assistant coach in the sport have prepared her well for this opportunity, and I look forward to working with her as she develops our program."
Student has most recently served as an assistant women's lacrosse coach at Redlands, an NCAA Division III university in Southern California, since January 2010. As an assistant coach, she was charged with mentoring team members; planning and executing practices; recruiting; editing video; creating game plans; coordinating all travel; fundraising; and ordering equipment.
During her two years there, the Bulldogs achieved an overall mark of 24-13, and in 2011, Redlands earned its first-ever berth into the NCAA Division III Women's Lacrosse Championship Tournament, gaining one of nine Pool "C" bids. The Bulldogs fielded one of the most prolific attacks in all of NCAA Division III in 2011, finishing out the season ranked eighth in scoring offense (16.5 goals per game).
Before Redlands, she assisted with the women's lacrosse program at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges in Claremont, Calif., during the 2008 and 2009 seasons, helping lead the Athenas to back-to-back NCAA Tournament berths.
Student boasts experience as a coach outside of the collegiate ranks as well. She has served as the head lacrosse coach at Team OC Lacrosse since August 2011, and from 2004-07, she volunteered as an assistant with the Ithaca High School girls' varsity lacrosse team. In addition, she provided instruction and ran drills at the annual Nazareth College Women's Lacrosse Camp from 2004-08.
An accomplished student-athlete at NCAA Division III Nazareth College, Student was a defender on the Golden Flyers' Empire 8 championship teams in 2005 and 2006. Nazareth qualified for the NCAA Tournament in each of Student's four years on the team, and the Golden Flyers recorded an overall mark of 55-11 during her college career. Individually, she was an Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) All-Region Second-Team honoree in 2006, an Empire 8 Conference All-Star in 2006 (First Team) and 2007 (Second Team), an All-Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Upstate Division III Women's Lacrosse selection in 2006 and a New York State Women's Collegiate Athletic Association (NYSWCAA) Third-Team All-Star in 2007.
Student obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from Nazareth.
"I'm very excited to jump right in and build the New Paltz women's lacrosse program," Student said. "This team has lots of potential, and I just want to jump into this season and watch how things go. I want to thank Stuart and the rest of the staff for making this such a desirable place to work, and there is a great winning environment already established in the department. I'm very fortunate for this opportunity and am excited to get to work."
New Paltz kicks off its 2012 season on Wednesday, March 7, when it travels to Newburgh, N.Y., to take on regional rival Mount Saint Mary College at 4 p.m. in non-conference action.