Scout Bio
UMD head coach Maura Crowell will embark on her eighth season behind the Bulldog bench for the 2022-23 season after leading UMD back into the NCAA Frozen Four Championship game in 2021-22.
Crowell and the Bulldogs made their first back-to-back NCAA Frozen Four appearance in over a decade in March and returned UMD to the title game for the first time in 12 years last season after posting a 27-12-1 record, including a 3-1 record through the 2022 NCAA Tournament.
In seven seasons at UMD, Crowell has an overall record of 127-91-21, including an overall NCAA Tournament record of 4-3 and three NCAA Tournament berths (2022,2021, 2017) to go with two NCAA Frozen Four Appearances (2022, 2021). Crowell has overseen two Patty Kazmaier Top-3 Finalists (Gabbie Hughes and Lara Stalder), as well as a Patty Kazmaier Top-10 Finalist (Élizabeth Giguère). Under Crowell's guidance, UMD has had 72 WCHA Scholar Athletes and a total of 101 WCHA All-Academic Team members. For her efforts during the 2016-17 season, Crowell was named the USCHO Division I Women's Coach of the Year, as well as the the CCM/AHCA Division I Women's Ice Hockey Coach of the Year Award for 2017, and was named a CCM/AHCA Division I Women's Ice Hockey Coach of the Year Finalist in both 2022 and 2021. Crowell was also crowned the 2016-17 WCHA Coach of the Year after she guided UMD to its biggest turnaround in program history with 25-7-5 overall record and the Bulldogs first NCAA Quarterfinal game at home since 2010.
On Crowell's watch, UMD has had seven All-Americans, including Gabbie Hughes Élizabeth Giguère in 2021-22, Ashton Bell, Anna Klein and Emma Soderberg in 2020-21 and two All-Americans in the 2016-17 season (Stalder and Sidney Morin), as well as run on league awards. Bell was named the 2020-21 WCHA Defenseman of the Year, while Soderberg was selected the 2020-21 WCHA Goaltender of the Year. Crowell's program also landed WCHA Student Athlete of the Year for Catherine Daoust in 2017-18, and 2016-17 WCHA Player of the Year for Stalder, Defensive Player of the Year for Morin, as well as WCHA Student Athlete of the Year. UMD has also had 21 players placed on All-WCHA Teams, and tacked on a program-record 15 WCHA Scholar Athletes in 2020-21, as well as a program-high 18 WCHA All-Academic Team members in 2019-20.
UMD finished second in the WCHA in 2020-21, just a point behind eventual winner Wisconsin on the last day of the regular season. The Bulldogs earned 19 WCHA wins in 2016-17, the program's highest since the 2010-11 season, and finished third in the ultra-competitive WCHA (and just three points out of second place), Crowell also helped UMD back into the national rankings, and the Bulldogs reached as a high as second -- where they also finished the 2021-22 season. The Bulldogs were also runners-up in the 2017 WCHA Final Face-Off tournament to the University of Wisconsin, UMD's first trip back to the tournament's final game since the 2012 season.
After taking over as UMD's bench boss on May 1, 2015, Crowell guided UMD back to the WCHA Final Face-Off semifinals after the Bulldogs stunned then No. 7 Bemidji State on the road with a sweep in the opening round of the league playoffs.
Crowell guided two U.S. Under-18 squads to World Championship medals, and most recently led her U.S. U-18 side to a gold medal Jan. 2 with a 2-1 overtime win at the Ice Rink Vlado Dzurilla in Bratislava, Slovakia in the 2020 IIHF U-18 Women's World Championship. Crowell, in her first year at the helm, earned a silver medal silver in Japan in 2019, and has two gold medals as an assistant coach in 2016 and associate head coach in 2018.
Prior to her arrival in Duluth, Crowell spent five seasons at Harvard, including as Harvard's associate head coach in 2014-15 after filling an interim head coaching role in 2013-14. She was a Crimson assistant coach from 2010-13.
In Crowell's final season at Harvard, the Crimson went 27-6-3 overall, captured the ECAC and Ivy League regular season championship and the ECAC playoff crown, and advanced all the way to the NCAA Frozen Four title game. Crowell was an instrumental component of a Harvard program that had qualified for the NCAA Tournament three consecutive winters.
One year earlier, Crowell stepped in for head coach Katey Stone (who spent the 2013-14 season with the USA Women's Olympic Team) and was named a finalist for the 2014 ECAC Coach of the Year award after guiding Harvard to a 23-7-4 record, an Ivy League regular season title, a berth in the ECAC semifinals and the NCAA quarterfinals and a No. 7 ranking in both the USCHO.com and USA Hockey/USA Today polls.
Prior to signing on with the Crimson, Crowell built an impressive resume over five years (2005-10) at the University of Massachusetts-Boston helm. During her time behind the Beacon bench, she rolled up an overall record of 73-53-4 -- making her UMass-Boston's all-time winningest coach -- and helped produce 11 All-Conference selections. In 2009-10, Crowell was chosen the ECAC's Coach of the Year after the Beacons went 17-9-0 in all games and 13-6-0 against ECAC competition.
Crowell's collegiate coaching resume also includes a two-season stint (2003-05) as an assistant coach at Connecticut College, where she helped the Camels to their first first-ever playoff appearance. Crowell came to Connecticut College from St. Mark's School in Southborough, Mass., where she doubled as an assistant women's hockey coach and junior varsity lacrosse coach.
A Mansfield, Mass. native, Crowell enjoyed a rewarding four-year playing career at Colgate University and helped the Raiders to three straight ECAC playoff appearances and a spot in the 2000 ECAC championship game. Crowell — who was part of Colgate's transition from Division III to Division I — earned ECAC All-Academic accolades as a senior assistant team captain in 2001-02, and was awarded an academic prize for excellence in German. She graduated from Colgate in 2002 with a bachelor's degree in German and earned her Master's of the Art of Teaching from Connecticut College in 2005.
Crowell's Collegiate Coaching Experience
2015 - Current - Head Coach, University of Minnesota Duluth
2014-15 - Associate Head Coach, Harvard University
2013-14 - Interim Head Coach, Harvard University
2010-13 - Assistant Coach, Harvard University
2005-10 - Head Coach, University of Massachusetts-Boston
2003-05 - Assistant Coach, Connecticut College