Head Coach: Sharon Pfluger
Year of Service: 24th
Trenton State College ’82
Birth date: November 16, 1960
Hometown: Pompton Lakes, NJ
Education: BS, Health and Physical Education
Sharon Pfluger is directing the school’s women’s lacrosse program for the 24th season in 2010. Under her guidance, TCNJ has earned 11 NCAA Division III Championships, five NCAA Runner-Up titles, and four third-place finishes. Throughout Pfluger’s 20-year tenure as mentor of the women’s lacrosse team, she has compiled an amazing 351-31-1 record for a .924 win percentage at the helm of Division III’s most successful women’s lacrosse program. She collected her 300th win in 2006 as the Lions defeated visiting Colorado College, 15-5 on April 20 as she is one of only three NCAA Division III coaches to reach that milestone.
Her contributions to the game of lacrosse throughout the years hasn’t gone unnoticed as she was a member of the 50th class for the United National Lacrosse Hall of Fame, which was approved by the US Lacrosse Board of Directors and inducted in November of 2007.
The 1986 season, her first, witnessed the Lions unable to defend their 1985 NCAA crown as they lost 12-10 to Ursinus College, the national runner-up from a year ago, in the title game. TCNJ regained the NCAA Championship in 1987, defeating Ursinus 8-7 in overtime. For leading the 16-2 Lions to another NCAA crown, Pfluger was named the 1987 Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches’ Association (IWLCA) Division III Coach of the Year. A year later, TCNJ posted a 17-2 mark and became the first Division III team to win back-to-back titles as the squad handed William Smith College a 14-11 loss.
In 1989, the Lions faced Ursinus in the final game for the fourth time since the 1985 inception of the NCAA Division III Women’s Lacrosse Championship. This time, TCNJ received the short end of the stick, losing 8-6 to the Bears and finishing the year 17-1. The Lions ended the 1990 season with a 12-3 record, falling 6-5 in overtime to Ursinus in the NCAA Semifinals.
From the 1991 season to the 1996 season, TCNJ was the team to beat in Division III as Pfluger’s troops won six consecutive NCAA titles. In that span, the Lions posted an incredible 93-1 mark, including five unbeaten seasons. For guiding her squads to six straight lacrosse championships, Pfluger was twice named the Brine/IWLCA South Atlantic Regional Coach of the Year (1995, 1996) and 25 All-Americans were produced during that time, including four Lions being named Division III National ‘Field’ Players of the Year.
After mounting an amazing win streak of 102 games, which spanned from April 14, 1991 until May 18, 1997, the winning stretch was halted by a 14-9 loss to Middlebury College in the 1997 NCAA title game to finish the season 14-1. During the 1998 season, Pfluger took a sabbatical from the women’s lacrosse team. In 1999, she returned and led the Lions to the program’s second third-place finish as TCNJ lost 11-8 to Amherst College in the NCAA Semifinals. The 2000 season was a banner one for the Lions as the team ended its perfect 17-0 campaign by capturing the NCAA Championship, defeating Williams College, 14-8, for the title.
TCNJ advanced to the 2001 NCAA Semifinals, but dropped an 11-10 overtime heartbreaker to Amherst. The Lions finished the season with an overall record of 12-2, while Pfluger was named the Brine/IWLCA Metro Regional Coach of the Year. In 2002, TCNJ went undefeated for 17 games before falling 12-6 to Middlebury in the NCAA Championship game, posting a 17-1 campaign mark. History repeated itself in 2003, as the Lions once again sported a flawless 15-0 record before losing 12-10 to eventual national champion and nemesis, Amherst, in the NCAA Semifinals for a 15-1 season log.
Pfluger led TCNJ to an 18-1 mark and a second-place finish in the 2004 NCAA Division III Women’s Lacrosse Championship, suffering a 13-11 double overtime loss. For her efforts, she was named the IWLCA Division III National Coach of the Year.
The Lions snapped a four-year NCAA title drought as TCNJ handed top-ranked and previously undefeated, Salisbury University, a 9-7 loss in the 2005 championship game in Lions’ Stadium. Despite starting the 2005 campaign with a 1-2 mark, the Lions rebounded with 16 consecutive wins to garner the program’s 12th NCAA crown and finish with a 16-2 record. Lauren Dougher was named the IWLCA/USL Division III Midfielder of the Year as well as the NCAA Tournament MVP after setting the tournament record for most points with 25.
TCNJ matched that feat again in 2006 as the Lions beat undefeated and top-ranked Gettysburg College in the title game with a decisive 10-4 victory to finish with a 15-2 record. Dougher was again tabbed the tournament’s MVP and left her mark in the NCAA record books as the all-time leading goal scorer in tournament play with 60.
The 2007 season saw the Lions garner their 23rd straight trip to the NCAA Tournament, but had their impressive streak of 22 consecutive appearances in the national semifinals come to an end with a narrow 12-11 loss at Middlebury College.
TCNJ came right back in 2008 boasting 17 victories, the most since the Lions had 18 in 2004. The team finished the season with an impressive 15-1 record earning another bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Lions hosted the regional round and took advantage of their home field with a pair of wins advancing to the semifinals for the 23rd time in program history. TCNJ saw its season come to a close with a narrow loss to Franklin & Marshall College. Pfluger’s efforts were recognized as she received IWLCA Boardwalk Region Coach of the Year honors.
Acknowledged as one of the premier women’s lacrosse coaches in Division III, Pfluger became TCNJ’s all-time winningest coach in the sport in less than six full years at her alma mater, moving ahead of Melissa Magee, her predecessor and head coach during the early 1980s. Her teams have appeared in the NCAA Tournament 21 times, advancing to the NCAA Division III Championship game on 16 occasions.
Four times, Pfluger has coached squads to consecutive national championships. First, from the fall of 1990 to the spring of 1992, she earned four titles. Then Pfluger followed that up with four more from the 1995 women’s lacrosse title to the 1996 field hockey title. She picked up two more rings as the 1999 field hockey and 2000 lacrosse teams were victorious and then this past spring added the fourth set of back-to-back crowns giving the Lions titles in 2005 and 2006.
Over the course of her career, Pfluger has been honored several times. During the 1991 NCAA Division I and III Women’s Lacrosse Championships, she was the recipient of the NCAA 10th Anniversary Outstanding Service Award for her accomplishments in women’s lacrosse. Since 1989, Pfluger has served on the NCAA Regional Advisory Committee and assisted in coaching the U.S. Women’s Lacrosse Squad from 1987 to 1989. She received the Outstanding Achievement Award from the March of Dimes in 1990, while the Philadelphia Sportswriters Association cited her with the Outstanding Achievement Award in both 1991 and 1992. On November 15, 1992, Pfluger became the first woman honored by the Trenton Select Committee. In 1995, she was honored with the Bea Marwick Award for outstanding support and service to the sport of women’s lacrosse. In the summer of 1997, Pfluger joined four other women in the New Jersey Lacrosse Foundation Hall of Fame’s charter class. She is one of just two female coaches (Pat Summitt being the other) featured in the NCAA Hall of Champions’ Legends of the Game display located in Indianapolis, IN.
She authored a chapter for a book edited by Cecile Reynaud, PhD entitled, “She Can Coach: Tools for Success from 20 Top Women Coaches,” which was published by Human Kinetics Publishers in March 2005. Pfluger’s chapter focuses on team cohesion.
Pfluger was an assistant coach at Drew University in 1982 for field hockey and in 1984 for lacrosse, and the head field hockey coach at Kean College in 1983 and at Montclair State College in 1984, prior to her return to the College. A resident of Hopewell Township, NJ, Pfluger is the proud mother of two sons, Augie, 13 and Jonah, 11, and a daughter, Kileigh, 7.
