Allison Kwolek

In just three seasons at Clemson, Head Coach Allison Kwolek has led the Tigers to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament, an ACC Semifinal berth, and a national ranking as high as No. 6 in the country. 

Kwolek had the Tigers ranked in the Top 20 in each of her first 2 season, including as high as No. 14 in their inaugural season. After a 14-7 record and final national ranking of No. 12 in 2025, Kwolek has a 99-34 (.744) record in her last 8 seasons as a head coach. 

And the momentum continues as the No. 1 recruiting class in the country comes to Clemson for the 2026 season, led by No. 1 ranked Alexa Spallina and No. 2 ranked Emma Penczek.  

Kwolek has now led two different programs to top-10 national rankings in 3 of her last 5 seasons. And that is leading two programs who combine for just one top-10 ranking without Kwolek as the head coach. 

The 2025 Tigers moved up to No. 6 in the country after road wins over No. 5 Syracuse and No. 11 Notre Dame in the span of seven days. Kwolek had led the University of Richmond into the top-10 in each of her final two seasons, before taking the head coaching job at Clemson, which did not compete until 2022. 

Kwolek’s success in the postseason continued in 2025 as she picked up her third postseason win in three seasons at Clemson and the 14th postseason victory of her career.   

After reaching the 2025 ACC Semifinals with a 15-7 win over NCAA Quarterfinalist and No. 9 ranked Duke, Kwolek led Clemson to an 11-8 win over No. 15 ranked Navy to advance to the NCAA Sweet 16. 

Clemson finished the 2025 season with a 14-7 record, with four of those losses coming to Final Four teams. The Tigers had 4 top-15 wins, including 2 top-10 victories. Clemson went 6-3 in the nation’s top league, the ACC, finishing in a tie for fourth place. 

Clemson featured two All-Americans in 2025, Natalie Shurtleff and Summer Agostino, and had 11 All-ACC selections over the last two seasons. 

Clemson’s rise has been driven not just by Kwolek’s developing of talent, but her recruiting. It’s no secret, she is a coach that players want to play for, not just because of how she impacts their success on the field, but because of how she cares about the person off the field. 

The No.1 ranked recruiting class entering Clemson in the fall of 2025 is Kwolek’s second top-5 ranked class (Class of 2027 – 4th) and 3rd class ranked in the top-15. She also had a No. 1 ranked transfer class and her balance of top high school talent and acquiring top transfers has been a key to Clemson’s success. 

But as big an appeal as Clemson has, Kwolek landed a top-10 recruiting class at Richmond, where she also recruited and coached Sam Geiersbach, the 2022 Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA Championship. 

In her last five seasons at Richmond, Kwolek went 64-16 (.800), 27-5 in Atlantic 10 play, won two conference tournaments and two regular-season championships. Richmond was nationally ranked in the top-10 each of her last two seasons and qualified for the NCAA Tournament in 2 of the her last 3 years. That doesn’t include the 2020 season, when the Spiders started 7-0 and defeated No. 6 UVa before the season was cut short due to COVID-19. Kwolek coached five Atlantic 10 Players of the Year at Richmond. 

Prior to her time at Richmond, Kwolek served as an assistant at the College of William and Mary, Columbia University, and Dartmouth College, helping lead the Big Green to an Ivy League Championship and NCAA Tournament berth.  

Formerly known as Allison Evans, Kwolek was an All-CAA midfielder at William & Mary and defender on the US National Team. She was inducted into the Lacrosse Hall of Fame, Potomac Chapter in February 2015 and named to the William & Mary Athletics Hall of Fame in 2020. Kwolek and her husband Mark have a daughter Olivia. 

Kristie Masaracchia, mother of senior defender Paris Masaracchia:

“Allison’s created this family environment. I think it speaks to me more than any of the state-of-the-art facilities that they have at their fingertips. When they are having a bad day, a salt pod is great, but it’s even better to open your coach’s door and say ‘I’m going to cry, I need a tissue.’ It’s very likely she’s going to cry with them.” 

​Director of Athletics Dan Radakovich (Aug. 2021):

“Allison brings tremendous knowledge of the game, and proved to be a great fit as we looked to identify our first head coach. The response from the community has been overwhelming for Clemson women’s lacrosse, and we’ll lean on Allison’s expertise and vision to build this program the right way.