Piedmont University Athletics

The 2016 campaign marked the fourth and final season at Piedmont College for Head Women’s Lacrosse Coach Emily Jacquette who established Piedmont as one of the premier programs in the South Region as well as the country.  Piedmont’s 12-4 record in the program’s debut season under Jacquette ranks as one of the best starts all-time for Division III women’s lacrosse, and the legend only continues to grow with two USA South regular season titles in her final three years for the Lady Lions.

Bio as of end of 2015 Season
In three years as the leader of the Lady Lion lacrosse program, Jacquette has helped her team to an uncanny .816 winning percentage, a key factor in the leader being named USA South Coach of the Year in her first two seasons.  Jacquette’s teams, while highly successful on the field, have also had success in the classroom typical of the Piedmont athletic department as both her 2013 and 2014 teams were honored as Academic Honor Squads by the Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA).  In 2013, Jacquette’s team was named a Merit Squad by the IWLCA after posting the nation’s 2nd highest GPA behind only Pomona-Pitzer of California.

Jacquette’s success has not only earned her and the program regional attention, it has also put her on the national stage as well.  With the head coach completing her 5th season at the Division III level, Jacquette will now be eligible for listing in the NCAA’s roll of Winningest Active Coaches in the country with her career record of 69-22 for a winning percentage of .758.  Those numbers will for sure place in her in the Top 25 of Winningest Active Coaches when the new listing comes out this fall and likely could place her as high as the Top 5. 
 
In 2015, Jacquette’s team posted a 2nd straight undefeated record in regular season USA South play going 6-0 in league play and 14-2 overall finishing as the runner-up in the conference’s year-end championship tournament.  Piedmont put a league-high four players on the All-Conference 1st Team including another selection at goalkeeper as a Lady Lion goalie has been named All-Conference in each of the program’s first three years of competition. 
 
In all, PC’s 2015 team saw five players take All-Conference honors while several also placed amongst the nation’s best in several statistical categories. Mckynsey Douglas and Maggie McDaniel led the way offensively with McDaniel placing in the top 15 in Division III in points, points per game, assists, and assists per game while Douglas was top 40 in points per game and goals per game.  Additionally, Blake Forrest placed 7th nationally in goals against average to lead the way defensively.
 
As a team, the Lady Lions continued to rank as one of the best in 2015 as well with Piedmont owning the 4th best scoring margin in the nation while also placing 8th in scoring defense and 12th in scoring offense.  Also ranked 5th in assists per game, the Lady Lions placed 8th in win percentage and were top 40 in caused turnovers and draw controls as well.

The 2014 team, which posted a 14-3 overall record, overwhelmed USA South competition going 8-0 in league play to take the league’s regular season crown completing the undefeated journey with a fitting 19-6 victory at league member Huntingdon College in the regular season finale.  Piedmont’s only loss to a USA South member in 2014 came in heartbreaking fashion on a goal with less than 20 seconds left in overtime against Meredith College in the USA South Championship Game which prevented PC from sweeping the titles.

Once again, seven Lady Lions earned All-Conference honors including newcomer Kayla Jones who was named the USA South Rookie of the Year after taking Rookie of the Week honors four times in five weeks during the 2014 campaign.  The Lawrenceville native was tied for the second-most goals & assists in the regular season and was a major reason why the Piedmont attack ranked as one of the best in the country as the Lady Lions had the 5th highest scoring offense in the nation at season’s end.

The national statistical accolades did not end there though as Piedmont was also 7th in total points amongst all Division III members with 479 and posted the 6th best scoring margin outscoring the opposition by an average just shy of 10 goals per game.  Individually, several Lady Lions ranked in the top 75 of various statistical categories led by Maggie McDaniel who ranked 20th in the nation in assists per game and 22nd in total assists.

As for the debut season of 2013, the team’s 12-4 overall mark included a 5-3 record in USA South Athletic Conference play as the Lady Lions won a USA South postseason contest in their first-ever season to make a semi-final appearance in the league’s year-end championship tourney.  PC’s 12 wins in 2013 represented the third highest overall win total in the conference behind only Christopher Newport’s 18 and Ferrum’s 13, a factor which helped Jacquette earn USA South Coach of the Year honors in her team's debut season in the league. 

With seven players named All-Conference including Alexis Narducci who was honored as an IWLCA (Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association) All-West Region selection, PC started out the year on a nine-game winning streak outscoring its opponents by an average of 16 to 5 during that same stretch to open the program’s history with a resounding start.  The Lady Lions also owned a nationally ranked top 25 scoring defense as well as holding opponents to less than eight goals a game.
 
Jacquette made the trek up to Demorest after spending the previous year in Savannah, GA guiding the women’s lacrosse program at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) member. During her time in south Georgia, the coach directed all aspects of the successful program leading the Bees to a program best 11-4 record in her only season at the helm of the club program finishing off the season on a six-game winning streak.

No stranger to the development of a new collegiate athletic program, Jacquette was hired in October of 2006 as the first leader of the women’s lacrosse program at Birmingham Southern College, a NCAA Division III institution located in northern Alabama. While at the helm of the Panther program which began as a club sport in 2008 before becoming a varsity sport in 2009, Jacquette led her squads to an 18-9 overall record (.667 winning percentage) in two varsity seasons including a 12-3 mark in her final campaign while also mentoring a pair of IWLCA All-Region selections during her time with BSC.

Arriving at Piedmont with an overall collegiate coaching record of 29-13 (.690 winning percentage), it’s no surprise that Jacquette knows how to win as a coach as she suffered only a pair of losses in her four-year collegiate playing career with the College of New Jersey women’s lacrosse team and was a part of two undefeated NCAA Division III Women’s Lacrosse National Championship teams at the northern school with TCNJ taking titles in 1998 and 2000.

Having also won a Division III National Championship in 1999 with the Lion field hockey team as well, Jacquette was an IWLCA First Team All-American selection in her senior season while leading TCNJ to a national title and was also an All-Tournament selection at the 2000 National Championship Tournament. A two-time All-Region honoree in a brilliant four-year career, Jacquette served as the lacrosse team’s captain during her final season on campus, a year in which the Lions went an undefeated 17-0 en route to their second national championship in three years. 

Additionally, Jacquette’s 1999 team that suffered its only defeat of the season in the final four of the Division III National Tournament sported the nation’s best scoring margin winning by an average of 10.80 goals per game and the country’s top scoring defense allowing a paltry 4.87 goals per game over a 15 game season – the fourth best mark in that category since the NCAA began keeping the record in 1996.  The only remaining defeat in Jacquette’s stellar collegiate lacrosse career came in the national championship game of her freshman year as the midfielder led the program to a 60-2 record in her four years with the Lions.

Coach Jacquette’s experience with the ever-growing sport in the south is not limited to the collegiate ranks as she spent four years on the club level first with Future Elite Lacrosse in Washington, D.C. from 2002-2004 before moving on to Tri-State Lacrosse in New Jersey where she coached from 2004-2006 until taking the job at Birmingham Southern. While also having experience as an official in the sport, Jacquette has worked on several camp and clinic coaching staffs around the country during her time as a collegiate coach including Georgia Tech Lacrosse Camps and directed her own at Birmingham Southern from 2008-2010.

Since 2006, Jacquette has also been an active member of US Lacrosse and the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association attending both the IWLCA Annual Convention and the US Lacrosse National Convention since joining the organizations.

A native of Collingswood, NJ, Jacquette earned her Bachelor of Science in Corporate Fitness from the College of New Jersey in 2000 before moving on to earn her Master of Science in Health Promotion Management in 2003 from American University in Washington, D.C.

Emily married her husband Rob in August of 2011 just before arriving on campus at Piedmont, and the couple welcomed their first child on June 14, 2012, a daughter named Sophie Marie, and a second, Paige Ann, on September 21, 2014.