Coaches

Rachael Bragg

Head Coach Rachael Bragg enters her second season with the Transylvania women’s lacrosse team for the 2023 season.


In her first year at Transylvania, Bragg inherited a strong program and quickly led the Pioneers even further. Going into 2023, Transylvania is coming off their fourth straight Heartland Collegiate Lacrosse Conference regular season and tournament championships, as well as their first ever tournament win in the 2022 NCAA Division III Women’s Lacrosse Tournament, after appearing in the dance for the fourth time since 2018.


In the 2022 season Bragg helped develop 6 All-HCLC First Team athletes, including the Offensive Player of the Year (Abbey Peterson) and the Newcomer of the Year (Diana Bruder). Bragg herself was named the HCLC’s Coach of the Year for women’s lacrosse, after leading the Pioneers to a 5-0 conference record where they outscored conference foes 97-13 in the five regular season games. The team went on to claim the HCLC Tournament Championship on home turf with a 16-7 victory.


Upon clinching her first conference title at Transylvania, Bragg guided the Pioneers to the 2022 NCAA Division III Women’s Lacrosse Tournament where they defeated Washington & Jefferson in a 16-15 thriller for the first NCAA Tournament win in program history. With such accomplishments in just her season at the helm, and having assembled a highly talented young roster, Bragg has set quite the standard at Transylvania since her arrival.


A veteran of the Division III head coaching ranks, Bragg came to Transylvania after spending the last four seasons as head coach of the Bridgewater (Va.) College women’s lacrosse team of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference.


In her tenure at Bridgewater, Bragg rebuilt an Eagle program competing in the premier ODAC conference, crafting a formidable team on the field and in the classroom. In her final season at Bridgewater, Bragg developed 11 student-athletes onto the Dean’s List and an All-ODAC Second Team selection.


During her tenure as Bridgewater’s head coach, Bragg steered the program to its first national top 25 ranking in team history and an ODAC Tournament berth in her first season with the Eagles. Bragg piloted the Eagles to a collection of on the field and academic milestones, including landmark wins against Roanoke College for the first time in 34 years, the program’s first win over nationally-ranked Christopher Newport, and fielded 10 All-ODAC awardees over a three-year period.


Prior to her arrival at Bridgewater, Bragg was instrumental in the progression of two Division III championship programs, serving as an assistant coach at Division III Muhlenberg (Pa.) College and Catholic University of America (Washington, D.C.). During her stint at Muhlenberg from 2015 through 2017, the Mules reached the IWLCA top 20 and defeated No. 1 nationally-ranked Gettysburg College. While at Catholic in the 2015 season, Bragg helped the Cardinals win the Landmark Conference Championship and eventually reach the NCAA Elite 8 and a final national ranking of No. 6.


Beyond her coaching duties, Bragg has been a member of the IWLCA Senior All-Star Committee since 2019 and served this year with the Clinic Planning Committee. She attended the NCAA Emerging Leaders Conference in 2017.


Bragg obtained her Master of Sports Leadership from Northeastern University in Boston in 2017. Prior to her coaching career, Bragg was a four-year student-athlete in women’s lacrosse at Division III Birmingham-Southern College in Alabama, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology in 2013.

Nicole Blair