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Lacrosse (Women's)
Head Coach Judy Finerghty Email x7459
Assistant Coach Cara Dunn Email x7810

Head Coach Judy Finerghty

Judy Finerghty, the 2005 and 2007 Liberty League Coach of the Year, begins her 15th season as the head women's lacrosse coach.

In the 2007 season, Vassar's women's lacrosse team capped a spectacular season with a 10-9 victory over SUNY Brockport to claim the ECAC Upstate Championship. It was a historic season for the Brewers, both from a team standpoint and individually. The final 12-5 final record in 2007 tied the most wins in school record, equaling the 12 victories set ten years earlier -- in the 1997 season. For the first time since joining the Liberty League in 2000, Vassar qualified for the post season tournament. This came on the heels of a five-win Liberty League season, the most in school history. That milestone was achieved during a program-best seven game winning streak. In late March, Vassar won its second Seven Sisters Championship in the last three years with senior Ali Fantl's play spearheading the title and earning her MVP honors. Head coach Judy Finerghty was named Liberty League Coach of the Year for the second time in three years, Fantl to the First-Team and junior's Christine Castellan and Ariel Nelson to the Second-Team.

In 2005, Finerghty led the Brewers to a 8-9 season. The eight wins by Finerghty's team represents the most since the program starting keeping official records in 1992 and more than doubled the 2004 season. For the first time in 20 years, the Brewers won the annual Seven Sisters Tournament with wins over Mt. Holyoke, Wellesley, Haverford. In Liberty League competition, the Brewers were competitive. Two losses -- against RPI and Skidmore -- came in overtime; two others -- against St. Lawrence and William Smith -- were by one goal. In 2005, Vassar defeated RIT 18-10 to win the New York State Tournament and earned a bid to the ECAC Tournament.

Prior to her joining the Vassar staff, Finerghty served as the assistant lacrosse coach at William Smith College and helped the team to a 1988 appearance in the NCAA Division III finals. After a two-year stint as an assistant lacrosse coach at Bates in Maine, Finerghty was named head coach for SUNY Albany's newly created lacrosse team. The Greyhounds finished 14-8 in her two seasons there.

Finerghty remains active in both lacrosse and field hockey coaches' associations. She has served on post-season playoff selection committees as well as player award committees.

As a player at Guilford (Md.) College, Finerghty was named team MVP in 1987 and received the Richard Joyce Sportsmanship Award that year. In 1986, she was a Quaker Club Scholarship Award recipient.


Assistant Coach Cara Dunn

Cara Dunn, a 2006 graduate of Salve Regina University in Newport, RI, begins her first season as an assistant field hockey coach at Vassar College. Dunn is also an assistant with the women's lacrosse team. A four-year member of Salve Regina's field hockey and lacrosse teams, Dunn captained the field hockey team as a senior and the lacrosse team as both a junior and a senior. She was a Second-Team Commonwealth Coast Conference field hockey selection in 2003 and 2005. On the lacrosse field, she earned All-CCC Second Team honors in 2002, 2004 and 2006.

A member of SAAC at Salve Regina, this past summer, Dunn worked at the Vassar field hockey camp and the STX Revolution lacrosse camp.