Amherst College Athletics

• 2013 NESCAC Coach of the Year
• 2 NCAA Tournament Appearances
• Coached 17 All-Americans

Head Coach Carol Knerr will be entering her 24th season in the fall of 2025. After spending the 2000 season as an assistant and sharing head coaching duties with Chris Paradis in 2001 and 2002, Knerr assumed sole control of the field hockey program in 2003.

Knerr eclipsed 200 career wins in 2021 en route to an 11-5 overall record and the team has now posted 17 straight seasons with a winning record. Since Knerr became a head coach in 2001, Amherst has amassed a 235-131 (.642) overall record in 23 seasons over 24 years (the 2020 season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic). Amherst set the program record for wins with 15 in 2011 and earned berths in the NCAA Division III Tournament in 2009 and 2011, reaching the quarterfinals in 2011 and finishing the season ranked 10th in the NFHCA Division III Poll.

In 2013, Amherst suffered a pair of overtime losses to start the season before erupting for 13 straight victories, resulting in a 9-1 mark in league play and the program's first-ever top seed in the conference tournament. For her efforts, Knerr was named the 2013 NESCAC Coach of the Year.

Since 2001, Knerr has seen 36 players garner NFHCA Division III All-Region honors. She has also had a total of 17 players secure NFHCA Division III All-American honors. Amherst has also had at least one All-NESCAC selection in every season of Knerr's time as head coach for a total of 62 All-NESCAC selections, with 30 first-team selections and 32 second-team selections, in addition to Rookie of the Year honors for goalkeepers Emily Vitale ’12 and Rachel Tannenbaum ’15.

Before coming to Amherst, Knerr spent a year and a half as a two-sport assistant coach at Ivy League power Dartmouth College, where she helped lead the Big Green to an ECAC Field Hockey Championship — and an Ivy League title and subsequent trip to the NCAA quarterfinals in women's lacrosse — in 1999.

The Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania, native was a standout women's lacrosse and field hockey player at the University of Richmond, where she was a four-year starter and captained both sports before graduating in 1998 with a degree in leadership studies and a minor in sports science. Leading the nation in saves as a senior while garnering All-Conference honors, Knerr closed out her field hockey playing career ranked seventh all-time in NCAA Division I history with 975 career saves.

She also served as an assistant women's lacrosse coach at Amherst from 2000-12, helping guide the team to the program's first-ever NCAA Championship title in 2003.

CAROL KNERR FIELD HOCKEY COACHING CAREER
2001-present: Head Coach, Amherst College
2000: Assistant Coach, Amherst College
1998-99: Assistant Coach, Dartmouth College