SPARKS, Md. — US Lacrosse has announced the appointment of four new members to the 2019 U.S. women’s U19 national team staff. Kelly Amonte Hiller was named as head coach of the team in February.

Named as assistant coaches are Ann Elliott, Brooke Matthews and Angela McMahon. Meredith Frank McGinnis will serve as the team’s assistant manager, working with Lance Basler, the general manager for the U.S. national teams program.

“We had a truly outstanding pool of applicants for these positions,” said Ann Kitt Carpenetti, vice president of lacrosse operations for US Lacrosse. “It’s tremendously exciting to see the genuine interest in our national team program, and this group has achieved remarkable success in their careers. The fact that they all have strong connections to Kelly will go a long way in helping to build a cohesive staff in a relatively-compressed time frame as we get ready for the 2019 world championship.”

“The goal in selecting this staff was to pick a group of well-connected individuals from various regions of the country to provide an unmatched championship caliber experience throughout the entire process,” Amonte Hiller said. “I truly believe this goal has been met and exceeded by this talented group of coaches, who decided to join me on this journey. I am so looking forward to getting started and working with this group.​”

Elliott is in her fifth season as the head coach at the University of Colorado and was named the IWLCA Midwest/West Region Coach of the Year last season after leading the Buffaloes to a school record 16 wins and their first NCAA tournament berth. The Ohio native won three national championships as a player at Northwestern (2005-06-07), and then was a part of three more national championships (2009-11-12) as an assistant coach with the Wildcats before leaving to start up the Colorado program. Elliott will work with the defense and the goaltenders on the U.S. team.

Matthews is in her first year as the assistant athletic director and the head girls’ lacrosse coach at the Bryn Mawr School in Baltimore. Before accepting her current position, Matthews was an assistant coach at Penn State from the 2013 through 2017 seasons, helping the Nittany Lions reach the NCAA semifinals the last two seasons. She previously served as an assistant at Mount St. Mary’s. As a player, Matthews was a four-year starting midfielder and three-time national champion at Northwestern (2008-09-11), helping the Widcats win 85 games in her four seasons.

McMahon is in her eighth year as the head coach at the University of Massachusetts and has led the Minutemen to seven Atlantic 10 championships and seven NCAA tournament berths. She entered the 2018 season with 128 career wins at UMass, the most in school history, and that win total is the second best of any collegiate program over the past seven years. Previously the head coach at Connecticut and Bentley, McMahon was a member of Amonte Hiller’s first team at Northwestern and helped the Wildcats reach the NCAA quarterfinals by her senior year in 2004. McMahon will work the offense and the draw specialists.

McGinnis is the head coach at Notre Dame Academy in Hingham, Mass., and serves as the programs director for AchieveLax and a director for Mass Elite. She was the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association Coach of the Year in 2017 and led Notre Dame to a state title in 2013. She has also coached at the US Lacrosse Women’s National Tournament several times and helped Lower New England win the Val Walchak Trophy in 2017 by winning the top flight. As a player, McGinnis was a three-time All-American at Northwestern and helped the Wildcats win four consecutive national championships from 2006 to 2009.

Tryouts for the 2019 U.S. team will be held in August 2018 (applications will be available on uslacrosse.org later this month) and will follow the US Lacrosse age-based segmentation policy that was adopted by the US Lacrosse Board of Directors in 2016. As a result of that policy, any age-eligible U19 player under FIL guidelines will be able to be selected for the team, including players with college experience. Previously, the U.S. women’s team had restricted the U19 team to players that had not participated in college prior to the world championship.

The Federation of International Lacrosse Women’s U19 World Championship will be held Aug. 1-10, 2019 in Peterborough, Canada.

The U.S. women’s national team trains and plays using best-in-class products provided by Nike (apparel and footwear), Brine (equipment), STX (equipment), Under Armour (equipment), SISU Guard (mouthguards) and The Pearl by Guardian (balls). In addition to these partners, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Greenfields, Nationwide, Bank of America and MedStar Sports Medicine are official sponsors of Team USA. Team training is also aided by products from DJO Global, Motive Pure, NormaTec Recovery and Athletic Republic.

Follow the team on social media @USLacrosse and @USAWLAX.