MISENHEIMER — With the 2024 women’s lacrosse season set to begin in less than a month, Pfeiffer University announced last week that Sue Murphy has been selected to lead the Falcons as their new head coach.
Holding a 16-31 record across the past four seasons, the Falcons are hoping to bounce back from a 5-13 (4-5 USA South) campaign in 2023 as they look to notch their first winning season since 2019.
Former coach Kathleen Mirgon Crum is now at Gardner-Webb after two seasons in Misenheimer.
“After months of searching for the next leader of our women’s lacrosse program, we are ecstatic to have Sue Murphy join us in The Village,” Pfeiffer athletic director Zac Chilton said in a Jan. 5 press release. “Her success at the Division I level and her understanding and proven record of recruiting talented and high-level women’s lacrosse student-athletes made it an easy decision to welcome a coach with the caliber of Sue as a member of our athletics staff.”
“We are extremely confident that she will have an immediate impact and will return our women’s lacrosse team to prominence and to the top of the USA South,” Chilton continued. “I do not think there is anyone out there who is more qualified to take this program to the next level than Sue, and we are excited to see her get to work!”
Murphy, a native of Boyertown, Pa., led the Boston University Terriers to a 55-48 record between 1995-2001 and was named the America East Coach of the Year in 1999 and 2000.
In 2002, she was inducted into the New England Chapter of the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame.
Moving on to the University of Richmond where she amassed a 76-59 record between 2001 and 2009, Murphy was named the Atlantic-10 Coach of the Year in 2005 and 2006 while her teams captured three Atlantic-10 Regular Season Championships (2006, 2007, 2008) and three Atlantic-10 Tournament titles (2005, 2006, 2007).
Following her stint at the University of Richmond, Murphy created a lacrosse business in central Virginia with standout STORM Lacrosse travel teams as she worked in recruiting and organization between 2011 and 2018; she later held the position of Director of Coaching as her STORM Lacrosse teams merged into the Richmond Strikers organization.
“Sue Murphy is a tremendous hire for Pfeiffer,” said Liz Robertshaw, executive director for the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA). “Her high-level knowledge and passion for the game is clear to anyone who has worked with her or who has coached against her. Her ability to make genuine relationships with those surrounding her has proven to create a culture of success everywhere that she has coached.”
Pfeiffer’s women lacrosse season is set to begin on Feb 11 with a road matchup at Oglethorpe. The Falcons will then hold their home opener on Feb. 25 as Wilmington comes to Misenheimer’s N.E. Lefko Field.