After leading Colgate to back-to-back Patriot League championships and consecutive NCAA tournament appearances in her last two seasons, head coach Katrina Silva is poised to take the Raiders to the next level in 2006. Silva, in her seventh season at the helm of the program, will look to add more hardware to Colgate’s trophy case with her deepest and most experienced squad to date.
With 57 victories in six seasons, Silva ranks as the second-winningest coach in Colgate history. Among active coaches in Division I, she ranks 19th with a .543 winning percentage. Silva has led the Raiders to victory in each of their last 17 Patriot League contests. She owns a 16-game winning streak against Patriot League teams, and is the winner of the league’s last two Coach of the Year awards.
During her tenure, Silva has coached four IWLCA all-region selections,two Patriot League Offensive Players of the Year, two Patriot League Defensive Players of the Year, two Patriot League Rookies of the Year, and two IWLCA Division I National Honor Roll members. One of Silva’s student-athletes has been named the Patriot League Tournament MVP in each of the last two seasons, and her student-athletes have earned all-league status 34 times over the last six years.
Last season, Silva made school history by becoming the first coach in the history of the program to bring home a second straight Patriot League championship. She was rewarded by being named the league’s Coach of the Year for the second year in a row. The Raiders made a return trip to the NCAA tournament where they faced third-ranked Boston University and gave the Terriers all they could handle. Silva’s squad finished with 13 victories for the second consecutive season, which is tied for the second most wins in a season in school history.
In 2004, Silva’s Raiders brought home the program’s first Patriot League tournament championship, and with it, the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Colgate took the conference title with a thrilling double-overtime win against American at Tyler’s Field, then faced perennial national power Princeton in the first round of the NCAA tournament. The Tigers went on to play Virginia in the national championship game.
Silva ushered in a new era for Colgate women’s lacrosse in 2003. That year, she turned a program that finished 6-11 a year before and made it a Patriot League contender with a 10-8 overall record and a 5-1 mark in conference play. Colgate entered the 2003 league tournament with hopes of leaving Washington, D.C., with the trophy, but the second-seeded Raiders were upset in the first round by Bucknell.
In Silva’s first season as the team’s leader on the sidelines in Hamilton, she coached Colgate to an 8-6 overall record in 2000. The Raiders finished second in the conference that year to eight-time league champion Lafayette with a 4-1 mark in Patriot League play.
Silva returned to Colgate after working as the head women’s lacrosse and field hockey coach at Roanoke College. During her three seasons, Silva coached the lacrosse team to a 37-11 record and two Old Dominion Athletic Conference championships. In 1997, her Maroons advanced to the quarterfinal round of the NCAA Division III tournament. At Roanoke, Silva coached five IWLCA and USWLA All-Ameicans, five Academic All-Americans, and 11 all-region selections.
During the 1996 season, Silva worked as an assistant coach with the women’s lacrosse team at Virginia Tech. The team, in just its second season, compiled a 7-6 overall record. Part of Silva’s responsibilities included assisting in the allocation of scholarship funds and organizing community service projects for the team.
Silva’s first stint at Colgate came during the 1994-95 academic year when she served as the assistant women’s lacrosse and field hockey coach under Cathy Foto. That spring, she helped the Raiders post their best record as a Division I program to date, 10-5, and they earned an invitation to the ECAC tournament. Two of her seniors earned all-region honors and played in the all-star game that season.
Silva began her coaching career at Goucher College where she served as an assistant coach with the women’s lacrosse and field hockey teams from 1992 to 1994. Under her guidance, Goucher’s goalkeeper recorded 192 saves and a .642 save percentage on her way to becoming a two-time all-region selection.
Silva worked as the camp director at the Best Shot Goalkeeping Camps in Towson, Md., during five summers in the early 1990s. In that capacity, she was in charge of designing curriculums for both field hockey and lacrosse goalkeeping camps.
Silva was the starting goalkeeper for Towson University’s nationally-ranked lacrosse team for three years. During her junior campaign, the Tigers were finalists in the ECAC tournament. Silva was also the starting goalkeeper on Towson’s field hockey team for four years, and she was honored as the Southeast Conference’s Defensive Player of the Year as a senior.
Silva is a member of both the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association and US Lacrosse Incorporated. She has served on several committees with the IWLCA, including the regional all-american committee, and has been a representative on US Lacrosse’s board of governors.
Silva graduated from Towson with a bachelor’s degree in physical education studies, including a minor in psychology, in 1993. She resides in nearby Bouckville with her dog Harper.
