After wrapping up a nearly two-month head coaching search for James Franklin's replacement by hiring Iowa State's Matt Campbell, Penn State almost immediately announced another major leadership change and launched another head coaching search.
Less than six weeks after Penn State's 2025 field hockey season came to an end in late October, athletic director Pat Kraft confirmed that Lisa Bervinchak Love's contract would not be renewed following her third season as head coach.
Now just over a month after that announcement, Penn State's latest head coaching search has also been brought to an end – and with another huge hire.
In a Penn State University release published on Tuesday afternoon, Kraft announced that Hannah Prince has been named the seventh head coach in the history of Penn State Field Hockey.
Hannah Prince takes over as Penn State head coach
Prince joins Penn State after a historic four-year run as head coach of the Saint Joseph's Hawks. In her first season with the Atlantic 10 program back in 2022, she led the Hawks to a 16-5 record and their first ever NCAA tournament victory.
After another 16-5 season and NCAA tournament berth in 2023, she led the team to a 20-4 record and took them all the way to their first ever national championship game in 2024.
No Saint Joseph's athletic program in any sport had ever competed in a national title game, and their run included a massive semifinal upset win over No. 1 North Carolina, at which point the Tar Heels were two-time reigning national champions and winners of five of the past six national titles.
The Hawks again qualified for the NCAA tournament in 2025 and finished the season with a 12-10 record.
With a 24-3 conference record across Prince's four years at the head of the program, Saint Joseph's won two outright Atlantic 10 regular season championships, and they won the conference tournament in all four of those seasons. Under Prince, the Hawks possessed a 13-4 postseason record, including a perfect 8-0 in the Atlantic 10 tournament.
Their four consecutive NCAA tournament berths came after they had achieved just three in school history before her arrival as head coach.
In two of their other three NCAA tournament-qualifying years, 2017 and 2018, Prince was an assistant on the Hawks' staff. Between her first stint with Saint Joseph's and her 2022 return as head coach, she spent time with Princeton and Louisville.
Princeton finished the 2019 season as national runners-up, while Louisville qualified for the 2020 (spring 2021) NCAA semifinals during her time as associate head coach.
Proven winner arrives in Happy Valley
"We are grateful and excited to welcome Hannah Prince to Happy Valley as the leader of our field hockey program,” Kraft said in Tuesday's announcement. "Hannah has already achieved national success and has emerged as one of the bright young coaching stars in collegiate field hockey.
"Her energy, enthusiasm, and experience at the highest level of NCAA field hockey along with her commitment to academic excellence make her the ideal person to build upon the historic success that our program has already achieved. Penn State is committed to excellence at the highest level in everything we do, and Hannah shares the vision of bringing championship field hockey back to Penn State."
Prince's coaching career began in 2015 at New Hampshire after she graduated from Massachusetts, where she was a four-year starter and three-time Atlantic 10 champion, in 2014.
Now she is headed to the Big Ten.
“I am incredibly grateful to Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics, Pat Kraft, for the opportunity to lead the Penn State Field Hockey program and for the trust he has placed in me,” said the 33-year-old Gorham, Maine native in Tuesday's announcement.
“His vision, leadership, and commitment to building championship programs and supporting student-athletes is truly special and I am honored to join an athletic department with such a strong tradition of success and pride. I am excited to work with our field hockey student-athletes, bringing my passion for the game every day as we uphold the values of Penn State."
A new era for Penn State Field Hockey
Prince is set to become just the second new head field hockey coach hired by Penn State over the past 39 years.
"Nittany Lion Field Hockey has a proud and storied tradition, and I am ready to pour my passion and energy into building a program that competes for championships."
The departure of Bervinchak Love came after she led the Nittany Lions to a 24-27 record (8-16 in regular season Big Ten play) over three seasons. Prior to her three-year stint as head coach, she had spent 29 years on Char Morett-Curtiss' staff. She took over after Morett-Curtiss announced her retirement in early 2023.
The team made just one postseason appearance during Bervinchak Love's time at the helm, that being a Big Ten tournament appearance in 2023. They had qualified for the Big Ten tournament for 30 consecutive years before missing out in 2024 and 2025. Both years, they finished eighth in the nine-team conference at 2-6, narrowly missing the cutoff.
But what was especially clear throughout the 2025 season is that, despite the many close losses and "what if" moments, this is a team loaded with potential. And if there is any leader who can get the most out of this talented young group of student-athletes, it's the coach who immediately hit the ground running and turned Saint Joseph's into a national contender just a few short years ago.