The winningest coach in program history,
Anna Riordan completed her fifth season as head coach of the Manhattanville women’s lacrosse program in 2012.
In five years, Riordan has the most wins of any coach in program history and has produced the two highest single-season win totals in program annals, while also making the Valiants a competitor in the very tough Middle Atlantic Conference and now in the Freedom Conference.
Playing a customarily difficult non-conference schedule, the Valiants posted a 4-13 record in 2012 but still managed a 3-3 mark in the Freedom Conference to earn a berth in the inaugural Freedom Conference Tournament as the fourth seed. Over the course of the year, Casandra Honovich became the first Valiant ever to score 100 career goals as a sophomore and was one of four Valiants to earn All-Conference honors, led by herself and Melissa Goncalves earning first-team recognition.
After a tough 2010 season, Riordan and the Valiants rebounded in 2011, posting a 7-9 mark and finishing seventh in the Middle Atlantic Conference to just miss a berth in the MAC Tournament. Manhattanville cracked the 200-goal plateau for the third time in Riordan’s four seasons at the school, providing an exciting brand of women’s lacrosse to watch. The team also had two of its players named All-Conference for the first time since joining the MAC, as goalie Kirstin Betsill was named to the second team and Goncalves received honorable mention laurels.
Riordan followed a very successful first season with another record-setting campaign in 2009, guiding the Valiants to an 11-6 record, the most wins in a single season in school history. The team won its first four games of the year for the best start in program history, and concluded the season with the program’s first-ever berth in the Middle Atlantic Conference Tournament. The Valiants also scored 234 goals in 17 games, the most in a single season at Manhattanville.
Riordan made a big impact in her first year at the helm of the Valiant program in 2008, recording a then-school-record nine wins in 17 games. The team also went 4-4 in its first season in the Middle Atlantic Conference, finishing just outside the conference tournament with a fifth-place finish. The Valiants ended the season with a flurry, scoring a combined 42 goals in wins over Farmingdale State and Arcadia.
A 2007 graduate of Binghamton University, Riordan was four-year letterwinner for the Division I Bearcats. She scored 99 points in her 62-game career and was also a strong defensive player, picking up 112 ground balls. A Yorktown, N.Y. native, Riordan served as Binghamton’s captain during her senior season, starting 14 times and leading the team with 13 assists. While at Binghamton, Riordan was a member of the school’s Student Athlete Advisory Committee and volunteered with the Saint Jude’s Children Hospital and Johnson City Mentor Program.
After graduation, Riordan worked as a coach for Velocity Lacrosse, a traveling lacrosse team of Westchester County players age 11-17 based out of John Jay High School. Riordan has also worked as a coach at the Nutmeg Lacrosse Clinics and was the Director of the 2005 Future Stars Lacrosse Camp.
Year by Year Record
2008: 9-8
2009: 11-6
2010: 4-13
2011: 7-9
2012: 4-13
Record at Manhattanville: 35-49 (.417)
