May 22, 2025
Meredith Mesaris, who celebrated two Liberty League titles and two NCAA Tournament appearances in her two seasons at Vassar, will be the next head coach at Tufts.Photo by Stockton Photo, Inc. |
This is where we'll track all the head coaching changes in Division III women's basketball until next season starts. We'll provide links to the news stories posted on schools' websites so you can go deeper into the moves that interest you. You can also check out our listing of men's coaching changes.
If you see anything amiss, please email us at Gordon.Mann@d3sports.com.
- Prior years' coaching carousels: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012
| School | Last Coach |
Replaced |
Last position | Notes |
| Albright | Janice Luck | Alyssa Parsons | Assistant at D1 Rider | Luck, who went 315-267 in 23 seasons at her alma mater, is the program's all-time winningest coach. She's replaced by Parsons who was previously an assistant for two seasons at Stevens and the interim head coach at Pratt. |
| Alverno | Karlyle Ross | Sahil Lakhani | Men's assistant at Dominican |
Ross went 5-45 in two seasons with the Inferno. Lakhani moves north from NACC rival Dominican where he was an assistant with the Stars' men's team. He previously was an assistant for the Lake Forest women. |
| Arcadia | Jackie Hartzell | Diane Decker | Head coach at Lebanon Valley |
Hartzell was hired as head coach at Division I Rider, after going 54-26 in three seasons at Arcadia. She's replaced by Decker with whom she shared the MAC Freedom Coach of the Year award last season. |
| Austin College | Michelle Filander | Olivia Hunt | Assistant at D-I North Texas |
Filander was selected as Austin College's athletic director and will assume that role at the start of the 2025-26 academic year. Hunt was once a GA, later a full-time assistant at Austin College. |
| Averett | Desiree Driver | Tim Krotish | Assistant at Averett | Driver went 18-82 in four seasons with the Cougars. Krotish coached high school girls' basketball for 20 years until retiring from his full-time job as a history teacher, and then joined Averett's staff. |
| Buffalo State | Blair Estarfaa | Scott Foster | Assistant at Brockport | Estarfaa went 9-41 in two seasons with the Bengals. Foster was the lead assistant under Region 3 Coach of the Year Corinne Jones last season and also spent time at Hartwick and Hilbert. |
| Cedar Crest | Kenric Carter | Jason Rhine | Head coach at Keystone | Rhine, who has a career record of 146-80 in nine seasons at Misericordia and Keystone, will try to bring that winning experience to Cedar Crest. The Falcons' last winning season was 2008-09. |
| Centenary (La.) |
Paul Reed | Rennie Bailey | Men's assistant at D1 Southern U. |
Reed went 7-66 in three seasons with Centenary. He's replaced by Bailey who has 30 years of college and high school coaching experience. Bailey also played with NBA Hall of Famer Karl Malone at Louisiana Tech in the early 1980s. |
| Concordia (Texas) |
Matt Wallis | Brianna Marstaller | Assistant at Concordia |
Concordia made a late coaching change when Wallis took the Athletic Director position at the University in early October. Marstaller ascends to the top coaching position at her alma mater where she had been Wallis' top assistant since 2018. |
| Connecticut College |
Jackie Smith | Brett Zanardi (Interim) |
Men's assistant at Conn College |
Smith left Conn College to lead the program at her alma mater Hartford after going 49-95 with the Camels. Smith previously coached at UHart as an assistant when the Hawks were a D1 program. Prior to coaching the Camel men, Zanardi was a high school coach in Connecticut. |
| Dubuque | Justin Smith | Madeline Jansen | Assistant at UW- Oshkosh |
Smith went 60-58 in five seasons with the Spartans. Jansen played four years at Oshkosh and then was part of the UWO coaching staff that led the Titans to four consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances. |
| Eastern Connecticut | Denise Bierly | Mandy King | Head coach at Kean | Bierly went 553-279 in 30 seasons with the Warriors and led Eastern Connecticut to six Little East Conference crowns and the 2003 national championshp game. King has 22 seasons as a D-III head coach at Kean and W&L, and a career record of 295-268. |
| Eureka | Mike Hedrick | Isaiah Pace | Men's assistant at D-II Dallas Baptist |
Hedrick went 21-31 in two seasons with the Red Devils. Pace has worked in a variety of capacities at the collegiate, high school and profesisonal level, including time spent with the Orlando Magic and its G-League team. |
| Fitchburg State | Laura Pierce | Jonathan Mandeldove | Assistant men's and women's coach at D2 Franklin Pierce |
Pierce went 3-23 in her lone season with the Falcons. Mandeldove, who played at UConn under Jim Calhoun, is taking first position in Division III. |
| Franklin | Jessica Darmelio | Ashley Blanch | Assistant at Hanover | Darmelio, who went 40-37 in three seasons at her alma mater, left to take a head coaching job at a nearby high school. She's replaced by Blanch who coached at HCAC rival Hanover for four years and earned degrees from Defiance (undergrad) and Anderson (graduate), giving her lots of familiarity with the conference. |
| Goucher | Mike Ricks | Oliver Ellison | Assistant for Goucher men |
Ricks went 15-37 in two seasons at Goucher, but just led the Gophers to their first winning season since they went 15-10 in 2003-04. He'll be the next head coach at D2 Alaska-Fairbanks. He's replaced by Ellison who was a Goucher men's basketball assistant and Howard alum. |
| Hartford | Polly Thomason | Jackie Smith | Head coach at Connecticut College |
Thomason went 23-56 in three seasons at UHart which is transitioning from Division I to Division III. She's replaced by UHart alum Jackie Smith who went 49-95 with the Camels. |
| Howard Payne | Presley Fisk | Rodney Gee | Head HS coach in Lorena, Texas (2023-24) |
Fisk went 15-62 in three seasons at HPU. Gee has more than 30 years of experience coaching high school basketball in Texas. |
| Kean | Mandy King | Tasha Pointer | Assistant at D1 Rutgers | King left to become head coach at Eastern Connecticut. She went 172-152 in 13 seasons at Kean. Pointer played and coached at D1 Rutgers, along with D1 St. John's, Columbia, and Xavier. |
| Keystone | Jason Rhine | Ben Arsenault | Head coach at Spalding |
Rhine, who went 27-24 in two seasons at Keystone, moved down the Pennsylvania turnpike to lead the program at Cedar Crest. He's replaced by Ben Arsenault who returns to his alma mater after two seasons at Spalding University in Kentucky. |
| Knox | Seth McDowell | Emily Carpenter | Head coach at UW-Superior |
McDowell departs Knox despite going 34-18 in two seasons with the Prairie Fire and has subsequently landed at University of the Ozarks (see below) He's replaced by Carpenter who won regular season title and a tournament title at UW-Superior. |
| LaGrange | Destiny Lane-Frazier | Steve Kenner | Administrator at LaGrange |
Kenner, who works with LaGrange student-athletes on the academic side, was previously the head coach at former Division III member Emory & Henry for two seasons. |
| La Roche | Kam Gissendanner | Lexi Griggs | Assistant at D2 Seton Hill |
Gissendanner went 235-64 over 12 seasons, including a remarkable 177-14 record in conference with nine AMCC tournament titles. She willl be the next head coach at St. Vincent. Griggs played at D2 Indiana (Pa.) and coached at D1 Robert Morris and D2 Seton Hill, all of which are in Western Pennsylvania, along with La Roche. |
| Lasell | Kelley Sundberg | Matthew Reid | Assistant at University of New England |
Sundberg went 42-49 in her four seasons with the Lasers. She's replaced by Reid who graduated from Southern Maine and worked on Tony Ewing's staff at UNE the past five seasons. |
| Lebanon Valley | Diane Decker | Julia Duggan | Assistant at Christopher Newport |
Decker went 58-46 in four seasons at LebVal. The Villanova alum is moving closer to Philadelphia to lead MAC Freedom rival Arcadia in Glenside, PA. Since graudating from D1 Rider, Duggan has been a part of conference-winning teams at Endicott and perennial Top 25 ranked Christopher Newport. |
| Lesley | Martin Rather | Marcel Pettway |
Men's assistant at D2 |
Rather went 12-39 over two seasons but helped the Lynx improve from one win in his first season to 11 wins last season. Pettway is a New Englander who started his college playing career at D1 Bryant (R.I.). |
| Lyon | Casey Fowler | Michael Peckham | Assistant at Lyon | Fowler, who was hired to lead D2 Texas A&M International, went 24-28 in two seasons with the Scots. His assistant Peckham has 31 years experience coaching at the high school level and was also an assistant at D1 UW-Madison and his alma mater UNC-Chapel Hill. |
| Macalester | Katie Kollar | AD Donovan | Head coach at D2 Alaska-Fairbanks |
Kollar went 41-89 in six seasons with the Scots. Donovan went 14-64 in three seasons as the head coach of the Alaska-Fairbanks Nanooks, who hired Goucher head coach Michael Ricks for that vacancy. |
| Massachusetts College |
Will Brown | Russell Beauchamp | Head HS coach in Drury, Mass. |
In June 2025, Brown left MCLA without coaching a game since the Trailblazers did not field a team in 2024-25. Brown initially took the head coaching job at D2 Queens College (NY), but the position turned over a couple months later and is now filled by former Bryn Athyn coach Travis Ponton. MCLA's new head coach will be former men's basketball player Russell Beauchamp. |
| McMurry | Drew Long | Laura Lange | Head HS coach in Abilene, Texas |
Long, who took the head coaching job at Houston Christian, is the sixth D-III coach to move directly to a D-I head coaching job in the past five years. He led McMurry to the Sweet 16 this past season. Lange played at crosstown rival Hardin-Simmons where she was a college teammate of Cowgirls' head coach Kendra (Anderson) Whitehead. |
| Millsaps | Justin LeBlanc | Jeff Wilbur | Assistant at NJCAA Arizona Western |
After being named athletic director in January 2025, LeBlanc will focus his attention on that position and hand off his head coaching duties. LeBlanc, who was the 2024 Region 6 Coach of the Year, went 146-83 in nine seasons with the Majors. Wilbur returns to Millsaps where he was previously a men's assistant coach for two seasons. |
| Mitchell | Ashley Wilson | Tory Kennedy | Assistant at Keene State |
Wilson went 8-34 in two seasons at Mitchell. She's replaced by Kennedy who had been an assistant at Keene State since 2022 and played three years at former D3 member Eastern Nazarene. |
| Muskingum | Alison McCarthy | Ryan McClain | HS head coach in Marietta, OH |
McCarthy went 4-21 in her lone season as the Muskies' head coach. Ryan McClain, who was a defensive standout for Muskingum football, will be the Muskies' third head coach in three seasons. |
| NVU-Lyndon | Brennen Morton | Robin Andrea | Head women's coach at Portland (OR) Community College |
Morton went 21-29 in two seasons with the Hornets. He's replaced by Andrea who's going coast to coast after spending all of his career in Oregon and Washington. This will be his first position in Division III. |
| Ohio Wesleyan | Stacey Ungashick Lobdell |
Cody Hartzler | Assistant at Baldwin Wallace |
Ungashick Lobdell went 189-175, won two NCAC titles and reached the NCAA Tournament three times in 14 seasons with the Battling Bishops. She is taking an assistant coaching job at D1 North Florida. Hartzler comes to OWU after working with Cheri Harrer at Baldwin Wallace for 10 seasons. |
| Penn State-Berks | Kristin Hawley | Mike Brandt | Head coach at Minot State (2023-24) |
Hawley was promoted to an assistant athletic director role. Brandt has been a head coach at multiple institutions at the D-II and junior college level, and was 30-56 in three years at Minot State. Brandt was 254-166 at D-II USC Aiken over 14 seasons in the 2000s and 2010s. |
| Randolph | Steve Lanpher | Polly Thomason | Head coach at Hartford |
After six years at Randolph, Lanpher is headed to D1 Cleveland State where he'll be an assistant under 2008 D3 Coach of the Year Chris Kielsmeier. Prior to leading UHart through its transition to D3, Thomason led UT-Dallas to the NCAA Division III Tournament six times and was a two-time regional coach of the year honoree. |
| Rockford | Ta-Rel Franklin | Mike Winters | HS teacher in Machesney Park, Ill. |
Franklin went 5-18 in the lone season as head coach. Winters, who graduated from Rockford in 1997, coached high school boys basketball and was a local television broadcaster. This is his first college coaching job. |
| Sarah Lawrence | Bradley Alexander | Martin Rather | Head coach at Lesley |
Alexander went 34-139 in eight seasons with the Gryphons. He's replaced by Rather who went 12-39 in two seasons at Lesley, but boosted the Lynx from one to 11 wins over that span. |
| St. Joseph's (Maine) | Mike McDevitt | Christopher Woodside | Assistant at St. Joseph's (Maine) |
McDevitt won 667 games and 19 conference titles, leading the Monks to 14 national tournaments split evenly between NAIA and NCAA Division III. He never had a losing season in his 33-year head coaching career. |
| St. Vincent | Jimmy Petruska | Kam Gissendanner |
Head coach at |
Petruska went 258-123 in 15 seasons with the Bearcats whom he led to two NCAA Tournaments and kept near or at the top of the PAC during his tenure. He's replaced by Gissendanner who built La Roche into a perennial NCAA Tournament team in nearby Pittsburgh. |
| Spalding | Ben Arsenault | Raven Merriweather | Assistant at D1 Bellarmine |
Arsenault went 21-31 in two seasons with the Golden Eagles. He left the university to lead the women's program at his alma mater Keystone. This will be Merriweather's first job in Division III after she played at D1/D2 Bellarmine in Louisville. |
| SUNY-Old Westbury |
Chris Mooney | Joe Pellicane |
Head coach at |
Pellicane will try to turn around a Panthers' program that has five wins combined in the last three seasons and went 0-25 last season. NCAA's database shows him with a career record of 263-235 in 18 seasons at D2 schools Molloy and Dowling, including a 30-win season at Dowling in 2012-13. |
| Thomas | Jason Coleman | Gavin Kane | Assistant at Thomas | Coleman went 20-55 in three seasons with the Terriers. He's replaced by Kane who went 55-91 in seven seasons as the head coach at NAC rival Maine-Presque isle before joining Thomas as an assistant last season. |
| Tufts | Jill Pace | Meredith Mesaris | Head coach at Vassar | Pace stepped down from her position as Jumbos' head coach with a stellar 100-37 record in five seasons with Tufs, including a No. 1 ranking in 2019-20. She's replaced by Meredith Mesaris who went 46-10 with two NCAA Tournament appearances and a Regional Coach of the Year honor in two seasons at Vassar. |
| University of Ozarks |
Shauna Watson | Seth McDowell | Head coach at Knox | After four seasons with the Eagles, Watson will be the new head coach at Wilmington in Ohio. McDowell head the opposite direction since he was the head coach at Knox in Illinois where he went 34-18 on over two seasons. |
| Utica | Michele Davis | Allison Coleman (Interim) |
Assistant at Hartwick | Davis went 303-315 in 28 seasons with the Pioneers, including Empire 8 titles in 2008 and 2010. The Pioneers will be led on an interim basis by Allison Coleman, who is one of the most decorated players in D3 history and a former head coach at Sage. |
| UW-Superior | Emily Carpenter | Eveline Parsons | Assistant at UW-Stevens Point |
Carpenter, who will be the next head coach at Knox, went 45-34 in three seasons at her alma mater. She led the Yellowjackets to the regular season conference title in 2024 and the tournament title in 2025. She's followed by Parsons who played four years at Berry and was a Stevens Point assistant for three. |
| Vassar | Meredith Mesaris | Carly Assimon | Assistant at Rochester | Mesaris went 46-10 and made the NCAA Tournament in both of her seasons as the Brewers' head coach. She goes to Tufts to take over the Jumbos' program. Assimon graduated from Clarkson in 2021 but in a shot period has already gained coaching experience at her alma mater, Cortland and Rochester. |
| Wilmington | Sydney Moss | Shauna Watson |
Head coach at |
Moss, who is taking an assistant post in D1, went 13-36 in two seasons with the Quakers. Watson, who was Ozarks' head coach the past four seasons, returns to the Great Lakes region where she was previously the head coach at Earlham. Her career record is 63-121 over eight seasons. |
| York (Pa.) | Betsy Witman | Katie Kilpatrick | Assistant at York (Pa.) | After 443 wins in 28 seasons as the Spartans' head coach, Witman stepped down from that position. Assistant and former player Kilpatrick will lead the program going forward. |
| York (N.Y.) | Jason Marshall | Emmett Howell | Assistant at Queensborough (N.Y.) Comm. College |
Marshall went 4-36 in two seasons with the Cardinals. Howell worked with York men's head coach Clarence Emengo when he was at Queensborough Community College. |