Head Coach John McCloskey
- Coach John McCloskey
John McCloskey completed his fifth season with the Centenary College women’s lacrosse program. In five years at the helm, the Lady Cyclones are 42-27, including a 21-18 conference mark.
A year after setting program records with 13 wins and seven conference victories, McCloskey guided the 2011 squad to a 9-5 mark, including 6-2 in the CSAC, despite the graduation of the program’s all-time leaders in goals, assists, points and groundballs.
The 2011 team received six All-CSAC postseason awards. Juniors Danielle Bay and Meredith Bruce led the way, as each were named to the First Team, while sophomores Alysia Pinkerton and Nicole Judd took home Second Team accolades and junior Hannah Ally and sophomore Allie Swartz were given Honorable Mentions.
Centenary’s six conference victories include a 16-10 win over eventual conference champion Gwynedd-Mercy. The team finished in a three-way tie for the second-best record in the conference and earned the fourth seed after tiebreakers. In the opening round of the tournament, CC dropped a close contest to Neumann, 13-10. The team matched its on-field success with 11 CSAC All-Academic Team accolades off the field.
The 2010 campaign saw the team go 13-2, 7-1 in the CSAC, setting program-records in wins and conference victories . The Cyclones reached the CSAC semifinals for the first time in program history, falling in a hard-fought 14-12 contest to Gwynedd-Mercy. The team finished first in the nation in scoring offense, averaging 19.3 goals per game.
Seniors Megan Mars and Kiti Ovaskainen led CC, as each received First Team All-CSAC and Second Team ECAC South All-Star honors. Mars set program records with 117 points and 95 goals and led the nation in points per game. Ovaskainen recorded a Centenary single-season best 106 groundballs, leading the nation in that category, and also tallied a single-season best 31 assists.
Junior Lauren LaMotta was also named First Team All-CSAC while Bay, Pinkerton and Swartz received Honorable Mention accolades.
In 2009, the team went 7-4 overall, 3-4 in the CSAC, and two Cyclones took home All-Conference honors, as Michelle Garone was named to the First Team and Ovaskainen earned an Honorable Mention.
In 2008, Centenary earned its first-ever berth to the conference tournament, falling to the College of Notre Dame in the opening round, 12-11. Ovaskainen was the nation’s leader in groundballs in 2008.
From 1988-2003, McCloskey was the head men’s lacrosse coach at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa. There, he built a winning Division I program without the benefit of athletic scholarships. McCloskey earned Patriot League Coach of the Year honors in 1999 after guiding Lehigh to a conference championship while posting the programs' best record in school history at 12-3. The team was ranked nationally six times during his time there, and produced the 1999 nation’s best man-down unit and top goal scorer.
McCloskey coached two Patriot League Defensive Players of the Year during his career at Lehigh. After leaving the Division I level, he took over the Emmaus High School boy's program in 2006 and led the team to a perfect 8-0 record and the Lehigh Valley Conference Championship. He was named the Penn-Valley League Coach of the Year that same season.
Prior to his tenure at Lehigh University, McCloskey was the associate head lacrosse coach at Roanoke College, helping to lead the program to the 1983 NCAA Championship game.
McCloskey holds a Master’s of Education – Guidance/Counseling from Lynchburg College, as well as a Bachelor’s of Science Degree from the University of Delaware. As an athlete at UD, he earned All-American Midfield honors in lacrosse, led the team to four East Coast Conference Championships and was a two-time All-Regional soccer striker.
McCloskey was an All-American in 1979, earned two all-league citations and ranks No. 4 all-time at UD in scoring with 87 goals and 117 assists. In 2008, McCloskey was named to Delaware’s 60th Anniversary All-Time Men’s Lacrosse Team.
At Dundalk (Baltimore, Md.) High School, he received All-American Attack honors, along with being a First Team All-Baltimore Metro player in both soccer and lacrosse. He was a member of the soccer state championship team and county championship lacrosse team his senior season.
He presently resides in Bethlehem, Pa., with his wife Karen and their two daughters, Lauren and Paige.
Assistant Coach Rachel Peregrim
Rachel Peregrim enters her second season as an assistant with the Centenary women's lacrosse program.
Peregrim joins the team after three years as the head coach of the varsity girl’s lacrosse team at the Academy of St. Elizabeth High School in Morristown, N.J. Prior to that, she served as the co-head varsity lacrosse coach at Point Pleasant High School, helping the team to an eight-game improvement from the previous season. For her efforts, she shared the Coach of the Year Award from the Asbury Park Press. Her coaching experience also includes serving as the coach of a summer league U-16 team at the Nansemond Suffolk Academy in Suffolk, Va., leading her team to a 12-3-1 record.
Peregrim was a two-year player at Division I Old Dominion at defensive midfield under coaches Sue Stahl and Heather Walden. During her two seasons the team went 23-9 and reached the 2003 Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Championship game.
Prior to her ODU career, Peregrim played four years of lacrosse at Toms River High School East. She served as team captain her final two years and also earned Most Valuable Player both her Junior and Senior seasons. She was a two-time First Team All-Conference and a two-time All-County performer, including Second Team honors in 2002. She earned the Freshman of the Year award and her sophomore campaign was given Best Offensive Player honors. She also was a four-year member of the girl’s soccer team at TRHSE, taking home two Best Defensive Player awards and three Honorable Mention accolades.
Peregrim graduated Cum Laude from Fairleigh Dickinson-Madison in 2008 with a BS in Communication and a minor in Women’s Studies. She earned Dean’s List honors for the 2006-2008 semesters and was named to Omicron Lamda Pi Eta, the student honor society of the National Communication Association, during that time.