Elise Smigiel - Lacrosse Coach - East Carolina University Athletics

Elise Smigiel

Title:
Assistant Coach
Email:
smigiele26@ecu.edu

Elise Smigiel is in her first year as an assistant lacrosse coach at East Carolina University, a position she officially began on July 27, 2026.

Smigiel’s appointment to the Pirates’ staff ended a five-year collegiate career where she played at Marquette (2022), Penn State (2023-25) and most recently Towson (2026). She started 27 of 58 career games played scoring 72 goals with 15 assists for a total of 87 points. After graduation at Towson, Smigiel served as the junior varsity head coach at the Notre Dame Preparatory School that competed in the IAAM A Conference.

As a graduate student and co-team captain at Towson, Smigiel started all 19 games on attack scoring 35 goals (second on the team) with eight assists for 43 points. During the CAA Championships, she scored six goals and assisted on another for seven points in two contests earning All-CAA Tournament Team honors.

While at Penn State, she started 14 of 22 games tallying 14 goals with four assists for 18 points. During her first year (2023), Smigiel played in five games including a first round NCAA contest at Stony Brook and scored her first Nittany Lion goal against Drexel, which was her third game in University Park. The next season she appeared in just one game before starting seven of 16 contests in 2025 where she scored 13 goals with four assists for 17 points.

Her collegiate began at Marquette appearing in 17 games making one start where she tallied 26 points after netting 23 goals with three assists. Smigiel, who took 53 goals on the year with 44 on goal, scored a season-high three goals on two occasions (San Diego State and UConn) and two against Georgetown in the BIG EAST Tournament quarterfinals.

Off the field, the Flourtown, Pa. native earned her undergraduate degree in kinesiology with a concentration in movement science at Penn State (May 2025) earning Big Ten All-Academic honors and was tabbed a Big Ten Distinguished Scholar, and a graduate certificate from Towson (May 2026) in health leadership. While at Penn State, she interned with the high-performance department within athletics where she conducted training and lab testing for a variety of PSU sports. Smigiel is a certified strength and conditioning specialist and holds a certification in Adult and Pediatric CPR/First Aid/AED.