Syracuse women’s lacrosse: HC Kayla Treanor leaving Orange for same position at Penn State

Inside Lacrosse reports that the Orange’s head coach is heading to Happy Valley after four years at her alma mater.

Syracuse Orange head coach Kayla Treanor is leaving her alma mater to accept the same position with the Penn State Nittany Lions, per an initial report from Matt Kinnear of Inside Lacrosse.

Kayla informed the team of her decision on a Zoom call on Wednesday.

For continuity’s sake, the school announced that Caitlin Defliese-Watkins will serve as the interim head coach while a national search gets underway for Treanor’s replacement. Defliese is the team’s defensive coordinator and has been on the coaching staff since 2016.

Athletic Director John Wildhack put out the following statement in response:

“I appreciate Kayla’s efforts leading our women’s lacrosse program for the past four seasons and wish her the best in her next endeavor. Our women’s lacrosse program has a great history as one of the nation’s premier programs with a tradition of excellence that will continue into the future under our program’s next leader.”

Kayla coached the Orange for four seasons and finished with a record of 59-24. She led ‘Cuse to back-to-back regular season conference titles and back-to-back Final Four appearances in 2023 and 2024.

With the SU job now open, an expansive search will begin to fill one of the most coveted jobs in the women’s game. So, who will become the fourth head coach in ‘Cuse women’s lacrosse history? Let’s take a look at some of the top options.

We’ll start with Joe Spallina, who has the most experience and success as a head coach of anyone on the probable candidate list. Spallina has experience coaching both the men’s and women’s game, at the professional level and in multiple levels of college. He just completed his 14th season as the head coach at Stony Brook, and also recently began a new stint as the GM of the California Redwoods in the PLL.

Obviously, he’s got a big connection to SU with all three of his sons members of the men’s team, while his daughter, Alexa, originally committed to ‘Cuse before flipping to Clemson.

The question is, would he be interested in joining his sons in CNY? Spallina is Long Island through and through. He went to college there, all of his coaching experience is there (HS, Adelphi, Stony Brook, NY Lizards), and their family lives there.

If SU is looking to keep it in the family, the top choices would be Katie Rowan-Thomson and Michelle Tumolo.

Rowan-Thomson has been the head coach at UAlbany for the past seven season, winning the America East title in four of them.

She’s brought the Great Danes their best success in program history with a new program high in season wins, their first NCAA Tournament appearance, and their first NCAA win (over Virginia, of all teams, in 2023).

She was previously a ‘Cuse assistant under Gary Gait for one season in 2013.

Tumolo just finished her fourth season as the head coach at Army West Point, and she has a similar set of accomplishments to Rowan.

Like her fellow alum, she’s brought the Black Knights to brand new heights as a program, setting the single-season wins record and taking them to their first two NCAA Tournament appearances in 2023 and 2025.

She is also a former ‘Cuse assistant under Gait.

Neither Rowan nor Tumolo have Spallina’s experience or success, but they’ve proven themselves winners as head coaches at the mid-major level and have a deep connection to the program, inspiring confidence of their potential abilities to do the same with more resources and talent.

Elsewhere on the alumni ledger, Regy Thorpe is a name that will always pop up due to his extensive time as a ‘Cuse assistant under Gait. Thorpe spent 10 years at his alma mater as the associate head coach before moving on.

He’s currently in his fourth season as an assistant at Florida, where he was just promoted to their associate head coach two years ago.

Thorpe has extensive knowledge of the program, tons of connections and played for the men’s team in the early 1990’s.

Yale head coach Erica Bamford is a potentially intriguing option. She has the local connection as a Syracuse native and a CBA alum, and she has led the Bulldogs to back-to-back Ivy League titles and back-to-back NCAA Quarterfinals appearances. This year, Bamford and her team beat the Orange twice, including in the second round of the tournament.

It will be very interesting to see where and how quickly SU pivots to get the program moving back in the right direction. Who do you guys want to see take the reigns for the Orange women?