June 29, 2016
Source: GoPrincetonTigers.com
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Carla Tagliente, formerly of UMass, has been named the head coach of Princeton field hockey, Mollie Marcoux ’91, the Ford Family Director of Athletics, announced today.
“We are thrilled to welcome Coach Tagliente to the Princeton family,” Marcoux said. “She has a remarkable track record of success as a student, as an athlete and as a coach, and she is fully committed to achieving our goals of “Education through Athletics” and competitive excellence at the highest level. We’re confident that she is the ideal candidate to lead the highly-successful Tiger field hockey team into the future and to build upon the program’s tremendous history.”
Tagliente was the head coach for the Minutewomen for the last five seasons, most recently leading her team to the Atlantic 10 (A-10) tournament championship and a berth to the NCAA tournament.
“I am beyond excited and honored to be the next head field hockey coach at Princeton University,” Tagliente said. “This is truly a special place, and I am thankful to Mollie Marcoux for having the confidence in me to lead this incredible program. Princeton’s success and commitment to incorporating athletics into its overall core philosophy, and utilizing the athletic experience as an extension of the overall educational mission, is unmatched by any other university, making it a unique place to be a student-athlete. Kristen [Holmes-Winn, the former head coach] did an outstanding job of leading Princeton to the top of the national field hockey stage. I look forward to continuing with that success and building on the impressive tradition and culture of excellence on the field, in the classroom, and in the community.
Between 2012-15, Tagliente helped UMass to 57 victories, the sixth-most among all NCAA Division I field hockey programs during that period. That stretch included three appearances in the NCAA Tournament, three Atlantic 10 championship titles and 10 victories over nationally ranked foes. During that time, she was awarded A-10 Coach of the Year and National Field Hockey Coaches’ Association (NFHCA) Northeast Region Coach of the Year honors twice each.
The most successful season for UMass came in 2013, when Tagliente led her team to the NCAA quarterfinals and the most wins it had in a single season since 2000. UMass was 19-5 that season, with an A-10 title and a win over Virginia in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
During her five-year tenure at UMass, Tagliente compiled a 64-44 record overall and 30-6 conference mark. She had 53 players named to the NFHCA National Academic Squad, 17 NFHCA All-Region players and five All-Americas.
Prior to her time at UMass, Tagliente spent eight years in the Big Ten Conference, where she was associate head coach at Northwestern in 2009-10, an assistant coach at Michigan from 2006-08 and an assistant at Iowa in 2003-05. Before that, the new Princeton head coach was a volunteer at her alma mater, Maryland, in 2001-02.
As a player at Maryland, Tagliente was a three-time first-team NFHCA All-American (1998-2000) and earned a third-team distinction as a freshman in 1997. A two-time finalist for the Honda Broderick Award, Tagliente was a member of Maryland’s 1999 NCAA championship team, and she held the school records for career goals (87) and points (187) until 2010.
While at Maryland, Tagliente spent time with the U.S. national team, eventually playing in 78 international games at the highest level while scoring five goals. She helped lead Team USA to silver medals at the 1999 Pan American Games and the 2001 Americas Cup, while also competing in the 2002 World Cup. In her first season with the U.S. National Team in 1997, Tagliente was named USFHA Female Athlete of the Year.
Off the field, Tagliente was a three-time CoSIDA Academic All-America (1999-2001), including a first-team pick in her final two seasons, and was selected to the NFHCA National Academic Squad all four years. She was also picked for the 2001 Atlantic Coast Conference’s prestigious Weaver-James-Corrigan Postgraduate Scholarship in addition to graduating Summa Cum Laude.
Tagliente has earned her Level III coaching accreditation, and in 2010, was named head coach of the USA Field Hockey U-19 Team. Following a long international playing career, she stayed involved with the USA Field Hockey program as coach of the illustrious A-Camp and the High Performance Center Midwest Regional Team.
The Cortland, N.Y. native graduated from Maryland in 2001 with a bachelor’s degree in finance and marketing and delivered the commencement address for Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.
Tagliente continued her graduate education at the University of Michigan and earned an MBA with high distinction from the Ross School of Business.
Tagliente replaces Kristen Holmes-Winn, who left Princeton to become Vice President of Performance Science and Optimization for WHOOP, Inc.
