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Noreen Herlihy
Noreen Herlihy was named the fifth head coach of the IUP women's soccer program on June 20, 2022. She begins her second season at the helm of the Crimson Hawks in 2023.
Overall, the 2023 season marks Herlihy's 28th as a head coach, spanning three programs.
IUP went 5-4-8 in 2022, just missing a spot int he conference tournament with a high number of draws. The Crimson Hawks led the PSAC in game-tying goals (6), while landing three players among the All-PSAC West Selections (Hannah Scardina, Aislinn Meaney, Cassidy Zandier).
From there, Herlihy and her staff went to work, welcoming in a recruiting class of 19 newcomers for the 2023 season.
Herlihy comes to Indiana boasting 325 victories over a combined 32 years as a head coach at the collegiate level. Most recently she led the women's soccer program at the University of Akron from 2015-21, guiding the Zips to three Mid-American Conference tournament appearances.
Herlihy spent the last seven seasons in Ohio rebuilding the Akron program, with the three MAC tournament appearances during her tenure doubling the amount the team had in its history. In her first year in 2015, the Zips advanced to the MAC semifinals for the first time in program history. Herlihy took Akron back to the postseason in 2018 after finishing sixth in the league standings with its best MAC record in more than a decade, then made more progress with a fourth place finish and another postseason berth in 2019.
Herlihy joined the Zips after 20 seasons as the head coach at Slippery Rock University, where she led the women's program to a 250-113-30 record with 19 consecutive winning seasons. At the time of her move to Akron, she was one of just 11 coaches in NCAA Division II history with 250 wins while the 19 consecutive winning seasons ranked eighth best in DII history.
During her first trip through the PSAC, Herlihy transformed The Rock into a conference, regional, and national power. During her tenure, she guided Slippery Rock to three PSAC tournament titles (2003, 2005, 2012), nine NCAA tournament berths, three regional championship game appearances, and an Atlantic Region title in 2013. SRU won at least 10 games 18 times under Herlihy, including a then-program best 17 victories during the 2007 season. Eight times SRU wrapped up a season ranked in the top-25, finishing its 2013 season at No. 6 in the NSCAA Division II poll.
Herlihy proved to be a tremendous recruiter and talent developer at SRU, as nine Rock players combined for 13 All-American honors and 20 combined for 61 all-region awards in her 20 seasons. The three-time PSAC Coach of the Year (1996, 2003, 2012) saw her players win four PSAC Athlete and three Rookie/Freshman of the Year honors and a combined 81 all-league awards.
In addition to her time as the women's coach, Herlihy also coached The Rock men's team for five seasons (1997-2001). After a successful 1996 season on the women's pitch, she was asked to accept the dual role and become the first woman to lead the SRU men's soccer program. She won 41 matches over those five years, including a 10-8 debut season in 1997 where The Rock doubled their win total from the previous year.
On top of her coaching efforts, Herlihy also oversaw the SRU Athletes for Forgotten Angels group. The Forgotten Angels project is an impressive community service group made up of student-athletes from several Slippery Rock's sports teams. The group traveled to Haiti twice to deliver school supplies and teach youth sports clinics. It also traveled to New Orleans to help with the fallout of Hurricane Katrina, took valuable educational materials and taught sports camps in St. Lucia, and traveled to Nairobi, Kenya, in January 2014 to work at Hekima Place, a home in Kenya for girls orphaned primarily by HIV/AIDS.
Prior to taking over at Slippery Rock in 1995, Herlihy was an assistant coach at her alma mater Mercyhurst for two seasons. She helped the Lakers to back-to-back NCAA Division II national semifinal appearances in 1993 and 1994.
Herlihy joined the coaching ranks after a successful playing career headlined by her selection to the Irish National Team from 1985-88, where she played in the European qualifiers against the likes of England, Scotland, Holland and Sweden.
Herlihy began her undergrad work at Massasoit Community College in Massachusetts, where she played basketball and soccer before earning an Associate Degree in liberal arts. She then transferred to Mercyhurst where she graduated in 1992 with a bachelor's degree in sports medicine. She was also named to a pair of All-America honors, selected as an Academic All-American and earned four All-Region honors at Mercyhurst.
She later received a master's degree in sports administration from Slippery Rock in 2004.
Herlihy's contributions to every program she has been associated with have been recognized being inducted into the Mercyhurst University Hall of Fame in 2005. She was also inducted into the Massasoit Hall of Fame in the Class of 2011, and most recently was inducted into the Slippery Rock University Hall of Fame in 2017.
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