Theresa Walton was named the first Women's Lacrosse Head Coach in school history in July 2019.
Since that time, Walton's hard work has lifted the Penguins from start up to conference champions in just two years of existence. In just her second season as a Division I head coach she was named the Mid-American Conference Coach of the Year.
In 2022, YSU earned a share of the Mid-American Conference title with an 8-2 league mark. In the middle of the pack at the start of April, the Penguins caught fire winning their final five contests to tie Robert Morris and Central Michigan atop the MAC standings. In its final five regular-season games, the Guins won four road contests, including wins at CMU and RMU for the program's first win against those two-MAC powers. At Robert Morris on the final day of the regular-season, the Penguins overcame a four-goal deficit to stun the Colonials. At the outset of the campaign, YSU was picked to finish fifth in the six-team conference.
First-year Guin Natalie Calandra-Ryan led a major offensive turnaround as she was named the MAC's Freshman of the Year. Calandra-Ryan scored a conference record 68 goals en route to earning first-team league accolades. Aryss Lindsey joined Calandra-Ryan on the first team while Savannah Clarke, Erin Clark and Ali Korin were second-team All-MAC selections. Korin added 54 goals while Clark had 36 goals and 36 assists during the year. Clarke was stellar in goal averaging 9.3 saves per game and a .429 save percentage.
The program's first year was in the spring of 2021. With COVID-19 restrictions, the Penguins played conference games only. YSU picked up the first program win in school history beating Detroit Mercy and knocked off Kent State as well.
Walton, a native of Syracuse, N.Y., spent two seasons at VCU focusing on the defensive unit, goalkeepers and was as recruiting coordinator for Head Coach Jen O'Brien at VCU before taking over the YSU program. The newly-formed program posted seven victories in each of Walton's two seasons with the school.Â
In 2019, VCU was 7-11 and went 4-5 in the Atlantic 10 Conference. The Rams' defense caused 187 turnovers in the 18 games. Individually, nine players caused at nine turnovers.Â
In 2018, VCU finished the year 7-11 overall with a 5-4 Atlantic 10 record. The team earned it's first Atlantic 10 Championship berth by defeating seven-time defending conference champion UMass in the regular season, halting their NCAA record 61-game conference winning streak.
Walton led a defensive unit that helped propel the team to its first winning record in conference and included the program's first wins over Davidson and UMass. The defense held opponents to single-digit goals four times in 2018, which also featured two overtime wins. The defense forced a school-record 192 turnovers with eight Rams causing at least 10 turnovers for the campaign.
Walton joined VCU after serving as an assistant coach at the University of Mount Olive. In her first two years at Mount Olive, the Trojans had an overall record of 27-9. In 2015, Walton helped guide Mount Olive to the Conference Carolinas Women's Lacrosse Championship as the team was ranked No. 9 in the year-end Nike/LaxMagazine Division II Women's Lacrosse Top 20 Poll, the highest ranking in program history.
Prior to arriving at Mount Olive, Walton served as an assistant coach at Alma College (Mich.), where she helped the team to a 16-3 mark. Alma posted a record of 7-8 the year prior to Walton's arrival.
Walton earned her bachelor's degree in communications at Canisius College (N.Y.) and helped lead the Griffins to back-to-back Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference women's lacrosse titles, including the first title in school history. Walton earned MAAC All-Tournament honors during Canisius' first title run. She tallied 42 goals and eight assists for 50 points during her career.
She is a graduate of Nottingham High School where she earned Academic All-America and OSHL All-League honors.
