Gail Wallach, the 2025 Big South Coach of the Year, is in her second season as head coach of the Furman women’s lacrosse program. She was announced as the fourth head coach in program history on May 6, 2024.
In 11 seasons as a head coach, Wallach has amassed a 128-54 overall record paced by seven 10-win campaigns including a 14-4 mark in her first season leading the Paladins in 2025.
Wallach guided Furman to its best season in school history last year, leading the program to a school record 14 victories and a share of the Big South Regular Season Championship for the first time in school history. The Paladins set program records for points (447), goals (299), assists (148), and draws (308) in a season while leading the Big South in points, assists, draws, shot percentage, and goals against average. Furman would rank second in the conference in goals.
The Paladins also boasted one of the top offensive attacks in the country during her first season. Furman led the nation in shot percentage (.528) and ranked in the top-10 in assists per game, draws per game, points per game, free position percentage, scoring margin, and scoring offense.
Seven players earned All-Big South recognition in 2025 highlighted by Big South Co-Offensive Player of the Year Anna Roser, Big South Midfielder of the Year Paige Harman, and Big South Freshman of the Year Lily Toole. Roser, Harman, and Sofija Buzelis were first team picks, while Andrea Fisher and Skylar Hilmer were selected to the second team.
Roser led the Big South in goals, school record 79, and was fourth nationally in goals per game and fifth in goals. Harman, who totaled single season-records of 106 points and 54 assists, topped the league in points and assists and ranked 11th or better nationally in assists, assists per game, and points. Buzelis finished with a program single-season record of 115 draws, which tied for first in the Big South.
Wallach came to Greenville after spending two seasons as head coach at Anderson (S.C.) University in Anderson, S.C. She guided the Trojans to a 24-11 record over her two seasons, including a 15-3 mark in 2024, an appearance in the South Atlantic Conference Tournament semifinals, and the program's first-ever Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) Poll Top-25 ranking. She was hired as the program's first-ever head coach in 2021 and promptly guided Anderson to a 9-8 record in 2023.
The Trojans had the league's top scoring offense in 2024 with 302 goals and sported seven all-conference performers, including the SAC Attacker of the Year, Alicia Cannon, and the SAC Freshman of the Year, Rayne Dobson. Anderson scored over 20 goals in a game seven times highlighted by a 24-1 victory over Mars Hill.
In 2023, Wallach led Anderson to a 9-8 record in its first year as a program that was highlighted a 7-3 mark at home. She coached three all-conference selections in Cannon, who was also voted the SAC Freshman of the Year, Hannah Thomas, and Jackie Tiongco. As a team, the Trojans ranked second in the SAC in clears and ninth nationally in NCAA Division II.
Wallach was hired at Anderson after also starting the University of Alabama in Huntsville program from scratch and leading the Chargers for six seasons. Under her leadership, Huntsville posted a 74-22 (.771) overall record and made an appearance in the Gulf South Conference tournament championship five times. UAH claimed the league's regular season title in 2017 and won back-to-back GSC Tournament championships in 2019 and 2021. The team posted a program-best 16-3 record in 2019 and captured its first-ever GSC Championship.
During her time at Huntsville, Wallach's teams led the nation in scoring in 2016, 2017, and 2018. She coached one Alabama Sports Writers Association Small College Athlete of the Year, three Gulf South Players of the Year, a trio of GSC Freshmen of the Year, a GSC Defensive Player of the Year, one GSC Top Ten Award winner, and 22 All-GSC performers.
Wallach began her coaching career at Emmanuel (Ga.) College and led the Lions for two seasons. She coached four all-conference selections and one All-American in 2014 after leading to the team to a 9-10 record and semifinal appearance in the National Women's Lacrosse League (NWLL) tournament.
She has also made stops in her career as head women's basketball coach at Rutgers University-Camden, Drew University, and Washington College. Wallach mentored 17 all-conference selections during her basketball coaching career.
Before taking over head coaching duties at Washington, Wallach served as an assistant coach for the women's basketball and lacrosse programs.
Wallach graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Kean University and earned her MBA from the University of Phoenix.
She was a three-sport performer at Kean and is a member of the Cougars' Hall of Fame. Wallach served as team captain on the women's lacrosse squad while earning All-NJAC honors. She was a two-time All-NJAC and ECAC selection on the hardwood and was also selected a Kodak/WBCA D-III All-American following the 1996-97 season. She is tied atop the Cougars' record book for single season scoring average and owns the school record for most made free throws in a season. Wallach also lettered in field hockey.
