Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 3/20/09
The University of Richmond announced Friday that women’s lacrosse head coach Sue Murphy, a graduate of Boyertown High, has resigned, effective immediately.
Murphy, whose team started 0-8 this year, was in her eighth season as the Spiders’ head coach.
Peter Albright, veteran head coach of the women’s soccer team, will oversee the lacrosse program as interim head coach for the remainder of the 2009 season. Second-year assistant coach Alli Nuzzi, a former Spider lacrosse captain and four-year starter, will remain in her current role with the team.
A national search is underway for a new head coach of the women’s lacrosse program.
Murphy guided the Spiders to four straight Atlantic 10 Conference championships before bowing to Massachusetts in last year’s A-10 finals. She had a career record of 77-49 heading into this year, but the team struggled through a winless start against a number of Top 20 teams, all non-league foes.
Murphy came to Richmond after serving as head coach at Boston University, where she launched the women’s lacrosse program to the Division I level six years ago. However, Murphy did not rest on her laurels and celebrate the program’s rise to the varsity level; instead, she took the program to heights some only dream about.
Murphy’s BU teams excelled against some of the toughest competition in the country during her six seasons at the helm, posting wins over national powerhouses and, in her last three seasons at Boston, the Terriers posted rankings of 17th, 11th and 13th in the country. In 2000, Murphy directed the Terriers to the America East regular season and tournament championships and to an NCAA at-large berth. Murphy was twice named the America East Coach of the Year.
From 1998-2005, Murphy was the head coach for the U.S.A National Developmental Squad, a feeder program for the World Cup and Elite Squad. Murphy is well known in the lacrosse community, as a former member of the U.S. Lacrosse Board of Directors and the U.S. Lacrosse Women’s Board of Governors.
Murphy previously coached at Division III Muhlenberg College (1992-95) in Allentown, Pa, where she was the head lacrosse and field hockey coach. In addition to her coaching duties, she served as administrative assistant to the director of athletics and was an instructor in the physical education department. She began her coaching career as an assistant at her alma mater, Boyertown High, where she helped lead the team to a 14-1 record. A coaching stint at Oberlin College in Ohio followed.
Murphy was a two-time All-American at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Elected captain her senior season, she earned team MVP honors and finished her stellar career as the school’s all-time leading scorer. Murphy received a Bachelor of Science degree in Sport Management from UMass in 1990.
