UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Penn State Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Dr. Patrick Kraft announced the selection of Hannah Prince as head coach for the Penn State Nittany Lion field hockey team. Prince, a 2014 UMass graduate, comes to Penn State after a highly successful run as head coach at Saint Joseph’s where she led the Hawks to four-straight NCAA Tournaments, a 2024 National Championship game appearance and Atlantic 10 Conference dominance.
“We are grateful and excited to welcome Hannah Prince to Happy Valley as the leader of our field hockey program,” said Kraft. “Hannah has already achieved national success and has emerged as one of the bright young coaching stars in collegiate field hockey. Her energy, enthusiasm, and experience at the highest level of NCAA field hockey along with her commitment to academic excellence make her the ideal person to build upon the historic success that our program has already achieved. Penn State is committed to excellence at the highest level in everything we do, and Hannah shares the vision of bringing championship field hockey back to Penn State.”
“I am incredibly grateful to Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics, Pat Kraft, for the opportunity to lead the Penn State Field Hockey program and for the trust he has placed in me,” said Prince. “His vision, leadership, and commitment to building championship programs and supporting student-athletes is truly special and I am honored to join an athletic department with such a strong tradition of success and pride. I am excited to work with our field hockey student-athletes, bringing my passion for the game every day as we uphold the values of Penn State. Nittany Lion Field Hockey has a proud and storied tradition, and I am ready to pour my passion and energy into building a program that competes for championships.”
Prince arrived as head coach of Saint Joseph’s in 2022 and led the Hawks to their second-straight sweep of Atlantic 10 regular and postseason titles. Saint Joseph’s went on to make history that year, securing its first-ever NCAA tournament victory with a 3-1 victory over Wake Forest. The Hawks ended the season ranked No. 7 in the NFHCA Coaches Poll, the highest end-of-season ranking in school history at the time. The next year, Saint Joseph’s duplicated the Atlantic 10 title sweep and earned the program’s sixth NCAA tournament appearance.
In 2024, Prince led Saint Joseph’s to historic heights, guiding the Hawks all the way to the NCAA championship game for the first time in school history, marking the first time in school history that any Saint Joseph’s sports team competed for a national title. Along the way, Saint Joseph’s set school records for wins (20), won a fourth-straight Atlantic 10 tournament title, achieved its highest national ranking (No. 3), hosted its first-ever NCAA tournament games and reached the program’s first-ever Final Four. Prince and her staff were named NFHCA Mid-Atlantic Region Coaching Staff of the Year.
Prince guided the Hawks to yet another Atlantic 10 tournament title in 2025, as the Hawks took down top-seeded Richmond on the road to clinch their fifth-straight A-10 championship. Saint Joseph’s made its fourth-straight NCAA Tournament appearance in as many years under Prince.
Prince’s success in mentoring and developing true student-athletes extends beyond just the field. During Prince’s four years as the leader at Saint Joseph’s, the Hawks tallied nearly 30 National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA) National All-Academic Team honors (with 2025 to be announced) and multiple CSC Academic All-District selections.
Prior to her debut as St. Joseph’s head coach in 2022, Prince served as associate head coach at Louisville, where she helped lead the Cardinals to a pair of NCAA tournament appearances. Louisville reached the NCAA Final Four in the spring of 2021 (after the NCAA moved the field hockey season to the spring).
Prince has extensive coaching experience, having started her coaching career at New Hampshire, helping lead the team to a pair of America East title games during her three seasons there (2015-17). She left New Hampshire for an initial tenure at Saint Joseph’s as an assistant coach in 2017 and 2018, helping guide the team to the NCAA tournament for the first time in 2017. Prince transitioned to Princeton University in 2019 where she was part of the NFHCA Mid-Atlantic Region Coaching Staff of the Year for the Tigers.
Prince owns a stellar 64-14 overall record as a head coach through four seasons, all at Saint Joseph’s. Prince amassed a 24-3 record in Atlantic 10 games and had 15-or-more wins in three of her four years as head coach for the Hawks.
A 2014 graduate of UMass, Prince was a four-year starter, three-time Atlantic 10 champion, and reached the NCAA quarterfinals with the Minutewomen in 2013. She excelled at both the national and international level, playing with the U.S. Women’s Outdoor National Team before going on to serve as the captain of the Indoor National Team for six years. She helped lead Team USA to gold at the 2017 Pan American Cup and took part in the 2018 Indoor World Cup, in Berlin, Germany.
Prince, a native of Gorham, Maine, is an active member of the U.S. national team program, having earned her USA Field Hockey Level 3 Coaching Certification in 2023, receiving the highest level of accreditation currently offered by the organization. She graduated from the NCAA Women’s Coaches Academy in 2018. Prince has served as an assistant coach for Team USA’s Indoor National Team and at 2023’s U16 Junior National Team Selection Camp. She is the founder and director of Prince Elite Field Hockey and the Prince Elite club program.