Colorado University Athletics
Lacrosse
- Title:
- Assistant Coach
- Email:
- Hannah.Nielsen@colorado.edu
Hannah Nielsen enters her second season as an assistant women’s lacrosse coach at the University of Colorado.
Nielsen, arguably one of the best players in the history of the sport, was one of the driving forces in the Buffaloes’ early success. In its inaugural season, CU posted an 11-8 overall, 6-3 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation record. The Buffs entered their first MPSF tournament as a 3-seed, advancing to the semifinals after a thrilling 9-8 double overtime win over San Diego State.
Nielsen rejoined head coach Ann Elliott at Colorado after the two were together for three of Nielsen’s four seasons on the Northwestern roster. The two were teammates for two years in 2006 and ’07. Elliott returned to the program in 2009 as an assistant coach in Nielsen’s senior season.
Nielsen came to CU from Towson University, where she helped lead the Tigers to a 27-11 record in two seasons with two Colonial Athletic Association regular season championships and the 2011 CAA Championship title. Towson was 11-7 in her first season in 2010 and improved to 16-4 in her second, a program record for victories.
Prior to Towson, she was an assistant coach in 2010 at Penn State University, helping the Nittany Lions to a 10-7 record.
During her four-year collegiate career, Nielsen solidified herself as one of the sport’s best. She helped the Wildcats to four NCAA Championships and a combined 85-3 record, starting all 88 of those games. The Wildcats were 20-1 her freshman season, 21-1 both her sophomore and junior campaigns and 23-0 her senior season. She helped Northwestern to a perfect 19-0 record in American Lacrosse Conference action and an unblemished 16-0 record in NCAA Tournament games in her career.
She is the NCAA’s all-time assist leader, compiling 224 in her career, 46 more than any other player in the history of the game. She holds the top two spots for assists in a season in NCAA history, as she initially set the record with 69 assists as a sophomore and topped the mark with 83 as a senior. She is the only player in NCAA history to hit double figures for assists in a game with 10, which she accomplished her senior season against Duquesne.
She is one of two players in NCAA history to compile more than 114 points in a season three times. She is just one of three players in NCAA history to average more than 3.0 assists per game in a season in multiple campaigns.
She won the Tewaaraton Trophy and the Honda Sports Award as the best player in the country both her junior and seniors seasons and was the Big Ten Athlete of the Year as a junior in 2008. She is one of just two players in the sport’s history to win the Tewaaraton Trophy in back-to-back seasons and was just the second player to win the Honda Sports Award a second time.
Additionally, she was twice named the Player of the Year by the IWLCA, Inside Lacrosse, WomensLax.com and WomensLacrosse.com in her final two seasons. She was a three-time first-team All-American, the ALC Player of the Year and a first-team all-conference selection in 2008 and ’09, when she was also the MVP of the ALC Championship game. She also got the job done off the field, being named Academic All-Big Ten twice in her career.
In 2009, she was the NCAA individual stat champion for points (142), points per game (6.17), assists (83) and assists per game (3.61). She was also the individual stat champion in 2007 with 69 assists. On top of her NCAA career assist record, she ranks second in NCAA history for points (398) and assists per game (2.55) and her 199 draw controls ranks 15th. She earned Northwestern’s Female Athlete of the Year honor, was the ALC Player of the Week five times and was named an Inside Lacrosse National Player of the Week.
A native of Adelaide, Australia, she has won one of each medal in three consecutive FIL Women’s Lacrosse World Cup appearances with the Australian National Team. In 2005, Nielsen scored a key goal to push Australia over the United States in the Gold Medal game. In 2009, she led the team with 12 goals and 13 assists as the Aussies fell by a single goal to the U.S. in the title game. In the 2013 Bronze Medal game, Nielsen scored four goals and added an assist as Australia defeated England. Nielsen led the team throughout the 2013 tournament with 24 total points, including 15 goals and nine assists. She was named to the All-World Team in both 2009 and 2013.
She was a three-year member of the South Australian U-17 state team and member of the South Australian U-21 state team in 2005. She played on the South Australian senior state team from 2002-05 minus the 2003 season, when she played for the U-19 Australian National Team.
Nielsen graduated from Northwestern in 2009 with a degree in human development and psychological services.
