Following a national search, Allegheny Director of Athletics and Recreation Bill Ross announced the hiring of Kelly Muffley as the ninth head coach of the Gators’ women’s basketball program in June 2021.
In five seasons at Allegheny, Muffley’s players have earned 11 all-conference honors, including five first team nods. For the 2024-25 season, Emily Lauer was named the PAC Player of the Year while Isabella Antonacci was named the Newcomer of the Year. Additionally, Muffley led the team to the ECAC Championship that season. Her teams also qualified for the PAC Championship Tournament in each season in the league.
Muffley arrives in Meadville with a decade of experience at the NCAA Division III level, most recently spending three years as the top assistant coach at Case Western Reserve in Cleveland.
At CWRU, Muffley served as the Spartans’ recruiting coordinator and head JV coach, while handling travel and volunteer coordination, strength and conditioning, game and scouting plans, film analyzation, individual player development workouts and running a summer Elite camp. Among the student-athletes mentored by Muffley at CWRU were a trio of First Team All-University Athletic Association (UAA) selections, including 2019 Finalist for the Jostens Trophy, Hillary Hellmann, and 2020 D3hoops.com All-Region pick, Abbey Lawrence.
Prior to her time at Case Western Reserve, Muffley spent one year as the assistant women’s basketball coach at her alma mater, Thiel. There, she had additional responsibilities as an assistant coach for men’s and women’s tennis, and was responsible for recruiting for all three programs. At Thiel, she helped mentor two-time Jostens Trophy Finalist and 2018-19 Presidents’ Athletic Conference Player of the Year, Jess Vormelker, and was responsible for recruiting 2018-19 PAC Rookie of the Year, Destiny Johnson.
She began her coaching career at St. Lawrence in Canton, N.Y., where she spent two years heading up guard skill development, film breakdown, tracking academic progress and many more tasks. Muffley coached a First Team All-Liberty League selection and was responsible for the recruitment of the 2017-18 Liberty League Rookie of the Year.
As a player, Muffley was a two-time All-PAC selection at Thiel, scoring 1,238 points to finish sixth in the Tomcats’ career scoring list, as a senior, she set a program record and ranked second in Division III with a 92.1 free-throw percentage. She graduated from Thiel in 2013 with a degree in Business Administration, emphasizing Marketing, and completed her master’s degree in Educational Leadership from St. Lawrence in 2017.
Allegheny Career Coaching Highlights
2025-26
- Jostens Trophy Finalist: Isabella Antonacci
- All-Region: Isabella Anontacci
- PAC Playoffs
- Two All-PAC Selections: Isabella Antonacci (1st), Sarah Santicola (HM)
2024-25
- ECAC Champions
- PAC Player of the Year: Emily Lauer
- PAC Newcomer of the Year: Isabella Antonacci
- PAC Playoffs
- First Team All-ECAC: Emily Lauer
- D3Hoops.com Second Team All-Region: Emily Lauer
- Four All-PAC: Emily Lauer (1st), Sarah Santicola (1st), Jess Bickart (HM), Isabella Antonacci (HM)
2023-24
- PAC Playoffs
- Three All-PAC: Emily Lauer (1st), Sarah Santicola (2nd), Jess Bickart (2nd)
- Four CSC Academic All-District: Emily Lauer, Jess Bickart, Branygan Biachin, Sarah Santicola
2022-23
- PAC Playoffs
- All-PAC: Emily Lauer (1st)
- Three CSC Academic All-District: Emily Lauer, Sofia Genareo, Alexis Caldwell
2021-22
- All-NCAC: Alexis Caldwell (HM)
