Email coach
Sara Tisdale
Sara Tisdale was named as the second Head Women’s Lacrosse Coach at Eastern Michigan University on June 21, 2022. Eastern, which announced that it would be adding women's lacrosse as the 19th varsity sport on Nov. 6, 2019, begins play in the 2022-23 academic year.
A highly-accomplished program leader with a 105-63 career record in 10 seasons as a lacrosse head coach, Tisdale currently ranks 30th among active Division I head coaches with a .625 career win percentage. She leaves a Central Michigan University program she built from the ground up and led to national prominence, posting a 2018 Southern Conference Championship, a 2022 Mid-American Conference Regular Season Championship, and a 2022 MAC Tournament Championship.
Tisdale also led the Chippewas to their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 2022 after winning the inaugural MAC Tournament. The Lansing, Mich. native helped start the program in 2016 and had an overall record of 54-55 in seven seasons. Tisdale also posted a 51-8 mark in three seasons at Division III member Augustana College in Illinois.
CMU has boasted 16 first team all-conference selections among 29 total all-league postseason honorees. Furthermore, two student-athletes have earned the MAC's Offensive Player of the Year honor.
The success of Tisdale's program has not been limited to the field. CMU has thrived in the classroom, earning a combined 67 Southern Conference academic honors, including the Commissioner’s Medal, the Honor Roll and membership on the All-SoCon Spring Academic Team in the two years that CMU was a conference member. A total of 34 members were named to the Academic All-MAC Team with a cumulative grade point average of 3.20 or better.
In addition, CMU has been named an Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association Honor Squad in each of its seasons of varsity lacrosse, and seven Chippewas were honored individually by the IWLCA for their respective academic achievements in 2021.
During CMU's historic 2022 season, the squad compiled a program-record 12 wins and shared the league's regular-season title with an 8-2 record. Audrey Whiteside was named the MAC's Offensive Player of the Year, after ranking second in the conference in points per game and assists per game, while coming in fifth in goals per game.
In 2021, Tisdale successfully guided CMU through its inaugural season in the Mid-American Conference, posting a 7-2 record in league play, good enough for a second-place finish. Facing the most rigorous non-conference slate in its six-year existence, CMU captured its biggest win in program history when it knocked off Oregon, 12-11, in overtime.
Natalie Karlen emerged as one of the nation's top offensive weapons in 2021, rewriting the Central Michigan single-season and career record book en route to earning MAC Offensive Player of the Year and First Team All-MAC honors. Three other players -- Brennan Paddy, Tyra Prince, and Brianna Hart -- received first team all-league recognition while Audrey Whiteside, Jillian Baldwin, and Sierra Savage were named to the second team.
The Chippewas posted a 2-3 finish in the abbreviated 2020 season, as they closed with a 14-11 home victory over Stetson. Though the season lasted just three weeks, four Chippewas earned individual weekly honors from the Southern Conference.
Tisdale saw her very first recruiting class graduate in 2019. That group of 11 seniors boldly embraced the monumental task of joining Tisdale as freshmen in 2016 and building the fledgling program; by 2018 they were champions, claiming the SoCon regular-season title for the program’s first trophy.
In 2019, the Chippewas set program records for goals (232), points (330), shots (517), shots on goal (397), draw controls (241), and saves (202) as Tisdale’s program further took hold and made its second consecutive appearance in the SoCon Tournament. Jocelyne Lemay, part of the nucleus of Tisdale’s first class, was named the Southern Conference Offensive Player of the Year.
In 2018, Tisdale guided the Chippewas to an 11-7 finish including 4-1 in the SoCon as CMU claimed the league regular-season championship. The 2018 season was marked by myriad highlights, including a program-record six-game win streak, which came during a span in which the Chippewas won nine of 10.
Tisdale was named the first lacrosse coach in CMU history in July 2014. Competing in the Atlantic Sun Conference for their first two seasons, the Chippewas put together respectable finishes, posting a 6-10 record in 2016 and a 7-10 mark in 2017, despite a roster composed almost exclusively of underclassmen.
Lemay was named to the All-Atlantic Sun First Team in 2017, becoming the first Chippewa to earn all-league first team recognition, while teammate Emma Hamilton received the Atlantic Sun Freshman of the Year Award.
Tisdale, who earned a bachelor’s degree in education from CMU in 2006, sports a track record of success in leading a brand new program.
In 2010, she was named the first women’s lacrosse coach in the history of Augustana. Tisdale led the Vikings to a combined 51-8 record over three seasons including a 19-1 slate in 2013, when the program won the Midwest Women's Lacrosse Conference regular-season and tournament championships and advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Division III Tournament.
The league tournament title was Augustana's second consecutive. Tisdale earned league coach of the year honors and was named Great Lakes Region Coach of the Year by the IWLCA.
The Vikings outscored their opponents, 355-137, and led all Division III schools in two statistical categories: scoring margin (plus 10.9 per game) and total points (goals plus assists) with 576. The Vikings' winning percentage (.950) was third best out of 257 Division III programs.
EMU will be the seventh Mid-American Conference institution to sponsor the sport at the NCAA Division I level. Others in the MAC include Akron, Central Michigan, Detroit Mercy, Kent State, Robert Morris, and Youngstown State.
Tisdale replaces Alicia Groveston Jackson, who resigned from her position in December 2021 for a family opportunity out of state. Allison Lane had been serving as the interim head coach.
show more