Bowdoin College

Bowdoin College Dept of Athletics
9000 College Station Brunswick, ME 04011

Division 3 Maine Northeast

Private Small Developing team

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Coaches

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Elizabeth Grote

The most successful coach in program history, Liz Grote has been the head coach of the Polar Bear women's lacrosse team since 2003.

Over the course of her tenure at Bowdoin, Grote has won over 65% of her games and led the Polar Bears to unprecedented heights. The Polar Bears have made two NESCAC Championship game appearances, qualified for seven NCAA Division III Tournaments and - in 2011 - accumulated the most wins in school history (18), the program's first-ever trip to the NCAA "Final Four" and runner-up finish in the Division III Championship.

In 2011 Grote surpassed long-time head coach Sally LaPointe as the winningest in program history. Coach Grote was honored as the IWLCA's New England Coach of the Year in 2005, '11 and '15. Under her direction, Bowdoin has had more than a dozen IWLCA Division III All-Americans and has won over 200 matches.

A native of Simsbury, Conn., Grote is a 1994 graduate of the University of Vermont and came to Bowdoin with an extensive background in college lacrosse. In addition to accumulating a school-best 32-18 record in three years at Wooster, Grote held assistant coaching jobs at Monmouth University (1995), Princeton University (1996) and the University of New Hampshire (1997-99). Prior to Bowdoin, Grote was the head coach at Wooster where, in 2002, she led her team to a school- record 12 victories (12-6 overall), surpassing the 29-year program's previous top mark of 10 wins in a season, and was named the Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association Division III West Region Coach of the Year.

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Kara Finnerty

Kara Finnerty returned to Bowdoin in the fall of 2021 to serve as head coach Liz Grote’s lead assistant following a decorated career as a Polar Bear student athlete. A four-year star on both the women’s lacrosse and field hockey teams, Finnerty was an All-American in both sports, the 2017 Most Outstanding First-Year Female Athlete at Bowdoin and the 2020 recipient of the Sidney J. Watson Most Outstanding Multi-Sport Athlete as a senior. In lacrosse, she also received the team’s Ellen Tiemer Trophy by vote of the team and coaching staff and was named a senior captain for the COVID-shortened 2020 women’s lacrosse season. Off the field, Finnerty was a multi-time Academic All-NESCAC and CoSIDA Academic All-American, and was a Sarah & James Bowdoin Scholar majoring in Government & Legal Studies and Francophone Studies. She also coached in numerous camps and clinics for the women’s lacrosse program while at Bowdoin.

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Katie Hawke

Katie Hawke joined the Polar Bear women's lacrosse coaching staff in the spring of 2008. The head coach at Springfield College from 2005-08, Hawke led the Pride to a pair of NEWMAC Championships and two NCAA Tournament appearances while twice earning Conference Coach of the Year recognition. Before Springfield, Hawke coached at Mount Holyoke College, where she served as a visiting lecturer in physical education, and assistant women's lacrosse coach and head squash coach.

From 1995 to 1999, she was the head of girl's physical education at the Queensbury School in Bradford, England. In 1999, Hawke came to the United States to pursue a master's of science degree in exercise and sports studies and serve as a graduate teaching fellow at Smith College. She was awarded her master's degree in May of 2001, and went on to hold visiting lecturer and coaching positions at Elms and Mount Holyoke. Hawke graduated with honors with a bachelor of education in physical education from Leeds Metropolitan University in England in May of 1992.