Allison Kwolek will enter her fifth season as the head coach for Clemson women's lacrosse in 2027.
After finishing third in the ACC and coming off back-to-back ACC Semifinal and NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 appearances in 2025 and 2026, Allison Kwolek has turned Clemson women’s lacrosse into a national power at warp speed.
Kwolek has now led two different programs (CU + UR) to top-10 national rankings in four-of-her-last-six seasons. Without Kwolek has the head coach, the two programs combine for just one top-10 ranking.
Kwolek, a U.S. National Team alum, started the program at Clemson in 2021 after leading Richmond to back-to-back Atlantic 10 Championships and NCAA berths and a top-10 ranking in 2020.
The Tigers started making noise in year one (2023), earning a top-15 ranking with the fourth-best ACC conference record over the last two seasons, winning 13 of 19 conference games.
The 2026 Tigers had five wins over ranked opponents, came just one goal short of an ACC title game appearance and advanced to their second-straight Sweet 16. Clemson finished the season 15-6 and 7-3 in ACC play.
Clemson had three All-Americans in 2026 with Teagan Scott earning First-Team Defense, Alexa Spallina named Second-Team Attack and Emma Penczek on Third-Team Midfield. Clemson has had 16 All-ACC selections from the 2023-2026 seasons.
That same year, the Tigers led the nation in shooting percentage, ranked second in the country for assists and caused turnovers and were third in points-per-game. Spallina was third in the nation in assists and fifth in points, while Scott ranked fifth in caused turnovers. Spallina was also named the 2026 ACC Freshman of the Year.
Kwolek has had Clemson ranked in the Top 20 in all four seasons, including as high as No. 14 in its inaugural season, No. 6 in 2025 and No. 8 in 2026. The Annandale, Va. native has a 114-40 (.740) record in her last 9 seasons as a head coach.
Clemson’s rise has been driven not just by Kwolek’s developing of talent but by 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 had has implemented a family-like culture within the lacrosse building.
After recruiting a top-10 class to Richmond, Kwolek has recruited four-straight top-10 classes to Clemson, including top-5 classes in three of the last four years. The 2025 class was ranked No. 1 in the nation, led by No. 1 ranked Alexa Spallina and No. 2 ranked Emma Penczek. The class of 2026 is ranked No. 4.
Kwolek recruited Sam Geiersbach to Richmond, where she set the Richmond career points record as a freshman, and after transferring to North Carolina for her final year of eligibility, was the 2022 Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA Championship.
Kwolek’s success in the postseason continued in 2026 as she picked up two more postseason victories, giving her five in four seasons at Clemson and the 16th postseason victory of her career.
In 2025, the Tigers reached their first ACC Semifinals with a 15-7 win over NCAA Quarterfinalist and No. 9 ranked Duke, and then defeated No. 15 ranked Navy 11-8 to advance to the program’s first 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.
Kwolek was hired by Clemson to be the women's lacrosse head coach on August 2, 2021. 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 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. At Richmond, Kwolek coached five athletes who earned Atlantic 10 Player of the Year.
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.
The former Allison Evans 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.
Quotes on Coach Kwolek:
Kristie Masaracchia, mother of alum 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."