Molly Palella (née Hulseman), who played in the NCAA Tournament four times while at Loyola, has helped the Yale women's lacrosse team achieve unprecedented levels of success in recent years. The Bulldogs have made back-to-back trips to the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals and won back-to-back Ivy League Tournament titles.
For their roles in the Bulldogs' recent accomplishments, Palella and fellow Yale assistant coach Colleen Smith were recipients of the annual IWLCA Outstanding Assistant Coach Award in 2024.
In 2024 the Bulldogs set the school record for wins (17), including a pair of wins in the NCAA Tournament. They also claimed their first outright Ivy League Championship (they shared the title in 1980 and 2003) by going 7-0 in league games during the regular season. They then won the Ivy League Tournament for the first time in school history. Yale was ranked as high as No. 1 in the RPI and No. 6 in the ILWomen/IWLCA national poll. The Bulldogs established school records for goals, assists, points, caused turnovers and draw controls. Palella works extensively with Yale's draw control unit.
The Bulldogs have been building towards this level of success for several years. They have made four straight appearances in the Ivy League Tournament championship game. The Bulldogs were ranked as high as No. 13 in the national poll in 2023. Their 2022 win total (11) was, at the time, their best since 2008. They tied what was the school record for Ivy League wins in a season (six) and earned a spot in the Ivy League Tournament for the first time. They went on to beat Cornell for their first Ivy League Tournament win. That season featured several other milestone victories, including the team's first win vs. Penn since 2004, the team's first win at Cornell since 2004 and the team's first win vs. Dartmouth since 2015. The Bulldogs earned a national ranking and broke the school records for goals and draw controls. The team's second-place finish in the Ivy League represented, at the time, its best finish in the standings since 2007.
Palella joined the Yale staff in the summer of 2017. In her first season, she helped Izzy Nixon lead the Ivy League in draw controls per game, breaking the Yale single-season record in the process.
Prior to joining the Bulldogs Palella spent two seasons as an assistant at Michigan, where she worked primarily with the defense and draw control specialists. In her final season -- the Wolverines’ fourth as a varsity program -- they set the school record for draws (244), making a dramatic improvement from their total the previous season (189).
Palella’s stint at Michigan came on the heels of a successful playing career at Loyola, where she was a four-year starter and totaled 70 goals along with 29 assists. The Greyhounds went 58-26 during her tenure, advancing as far as the NCAA quarterfinals in her senior year. They won the Big East regular season championship in 2012 and then won Patriot League championships in 2014 and 2015. An attacker/midfielder, Palella was the recipient of the team’s Reverend Francis J. McManamin Unsung Hero Award as a senior.
During her time at Loyola, Palella assisted with several camps and clinics and was also member of Loyola's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in biology in May 2015.
Palella has also served as a coach, personal trainer, tournament coordinator and camp counselor for Sports Made Personal in Chicago, Ill. In that role, she has trained girls from ages 6-19 at varying levels of ability. She was also the head coach of two age groups for the Team One Lacrosse Club in Chicago.
A native of Chicago, Ill., Palella attended Loyola Academy -- the same high school as Smith.
